--- title: Donald Trump: Read Full Transcript of Memorial Day Speech description: President Trump delivered a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, where he focused on honoring the fallen soldiers and their sacrifices canonical: https://time.com/4797345/donald-trump-memorial-day-transcript-arlington-national-cemetery/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-29T19:54:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:09:18.921Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Trump's Memorial Day Remarks og:description: He stayed focused on honoring the fallen soldiers og:url: https://time.com/4797345/donald-trump-memorial-day-transcript-arlington-national-cemetery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9a43bcecb6bdd07/6988cf50a988ca04b76bc704/gettyimages-689772658.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Memorial Day Is Commemorated At Arlington National Cemetery og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Trump's Memorial Day Remarks twitter:description: He stayed focused on honoring the fallen soldiers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9a43bcecb6bdd07/6988cf50a988ca04b76bc704/gettyimages-689772658.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Trump's Memorial Day Remarks  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 29, 2017 7:54 PM UTC  President Donald Trump participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, May 29, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia. President Donald Trump participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, May 29, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia.Olivier Douliery — Pool/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 29, 2017 7:54 PM UTC [President Trump](http://time.com/4796896/president-donald-trump-white-house-shake-up-russia/) marked Memorial Day like his predecessor: commemorating the country’s fallen soldiers with remarks at [Arlington National Cemetery,](http://time.com/2865277/old-guard-arlington-cemetery-photos/) which houses the graves of over 400,000 soldiers who died in active duty, along with veterans and their families. Trump’s remarks, which took place at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier —a monument dedicated to the unidentified soldiers killed overseas — were his first since returning to the United States from a nine-day trip abroad. He stayed focused on honoring the fallen soldiers and the sacrifice they had made for the country, declining to touch on the question that continue to surround members of his administration regarding contact with Russia, including his Senior Adviser and son-in-law, [Jared Kushner.](http://time.com/4796696/jared-kushner-donald-trump-russia-sergey-kislyak/) “We can never replace them. We can never repay them. But we can always remember,” Trump said of these fallen soldiers. “And today, that is what we are doing — we remember.” Here’s a full transcript of the President’s remarks. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4797345/donald-trump-memorial-day-transcript-arlington-national-cemetery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4797345/donald-trump-memorial-day-transcript-arlington-national-cemetery/"},"headline":"Read President Trump's Memorial Day Remarks","datePublished":"2017-05-29T19:54:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:09:18.921Z","description":"He stayed focused on honoring the fallen soldiers","url":"https://time.com/4797345/donald-trump-memorial-day-transcript-arlington-national-cemetery/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9a43bcecb6bdd07/6988cf50a988ca04b76bc704/gettyimages-689772658.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9a43bcecb6bdd07/6988cf50a988ca04b76bc704/gettyimages-689772658.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Memorial Day Is Commemorated At Arlington National Cemetery","caption":"Memorial Day Is Commemorated At Arlington National Cemetery","creditText":"Olivier Douliery — Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4797345/donald-trump-memorial-day-transcript-arlington-national-cemetery/","name":"Read President Trump's Memorial Day Remarks"}}]}] ```