Trump doesn't let shutdown interfere with celebrating Navy's 250th anniversary at rally-like event

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump did not let the government shutdown interfere with a stop in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday to salute the Navy as it celebrates its 250th anniversary — using his speech to praise both the Navy and himself.

Trump delivered remarks that by his own recognition bordered on making it more like a campaign event, generating some cheers from the crowd before closing out with a recording of his theme song, “YMCA” by Village People.

“Let’s face it, this is a rally,” Trump told the crowd of about 10,000 sailors in their dress-white uniforms.

Navy planes flew overhead as the president began his speech, fueling the crowd’s energy and prompting many of the sailors to chant “USA! USA! USA!”

The president spoke on a pier in between two towering Navy vessels, an aircraft carrier and an amphibious assault ship. The carrier displayed a Navy fighter jet, which had the words “President Donald J. Trump ‘45-47’” printed on the fuselage right under the cockpit window.

The Republican president criticized his political opponents and attacked Democratic lawmakers as the shutdown entered its fifth day, causing military personnel to work without pay until the government reopens.

“I want you to know that despite the current Democrat induced shutdown, we will get our service members every last penny. Don’t worry about it," Trump said to cheers from the crowd.

The government shutdown that began Wednesday has sparked partisan blame games as several thousand federal employees are furloughed and key infrastructure and energy projects in Democratic-run areas such as New York and Chicago have been put on hold. It lurked in the background of the event as Trump praised a Navy that he said has “never failed to hunt, kill and win.”

Senate Democrats rejected efforts to preserve a continuation of government operations when the new budget year started on Wednesday. They cited the lapse in subsidies that could cause health insurance costs to climb rapidly for people who get coverage through the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Democratic lawmakers also have sought to reverse cuts to Medicaid that Trump signed into law.

Democrats oppose Trump's move to have his administration decline to spend congressionally approved funds, saying it undermines the budgeting process, among other concerns. Meanwhile, Trump has explored laying off federal workers at what he called “Democrat Agencies.”

Among those joining Trump for the festivities were first lady Melania Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a former Navy rear admiral who was a White House doctor during Trump's first term.

After his arrival in Norfolk, Trump went to the USS George H.W. Bush and spoke to the sailors and handed out challenge coins.

The Trumps then watched a military demonstration while standing on the deck of the aircraft carrier. Navy destroyers launched missiles and fired shells into the Atlantic Ocean, Navy SEALs descended from helicopters and fighter jets catapulted off.

The president has increasingly sought to leverage support from within the military as he has escalated its role in American society, asking troops to patrol the streets of U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Memphis, Baltimore and Portland, Oregon. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Trump was seeking to send his state's National Guard to Portland after the administration's previous moves to deploy troops in the Oregon National Guard were blocked in court.

1. In his June speechfor the 250th anniversary of the Army, Trump similarly broke down presidential norms by calling protesters in Los Angeles “animals” and “a foreign enemy,” claims that left some in the audience feeling uneasy.

The sailors on Sunday were far more engaged and responsive to the president’s jokes and political quips than the military’s top brass were at a meeting on Tuesday at a base in Quantico, Virginia. They had been abruptly summoned by Hegseth from across the globe.

In his speech to the generals, Trump proposed using U.S. cities as training grounds for the armed forces and he spoke of needing military might to combat what he called the “invasion from within.” Hegseth declared an end to “woke” culture and announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.

The administration is seeking to reshape Pentagon culture and use military resources for the president’s priorities, including quelling domestic unrest and violent crime.

Trump has also engaged the military in an armed conflict with drug cartels, leading to four strikes on boats in the Caribbean that Washington says were involved in trafficking.

Boak reported from Washington.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose in front of a F/A-18E fighter jet with President Donald Trump's name on it, as part of the Navy's 250th anniversary celebration, aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norfolk, Va., Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump speaks during a celebration for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Harry S. Truman at Naval Station Norfolk, Sunday Oct. 5, 2025 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump watch a naval sea power demonstration, part of the Navy's 250th anniversary celebration, aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norfolk, Va., Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a celebration for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Harry S. Truman at Naval Station Norfolk, Sunday Oct. 5, 2025 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

President Donald Trump greets first lady Melania Trump as he arrives to speak during a celebration for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Harry S. Truman at Naval Station Norfolk, Sunday Oct. 5, 2025 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump watch a naval sea power demonstration, part of the Navy's 250th anniversary celebration, aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norfolk, Va., Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a celebration for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Harry S. Truman at Naval Station Norfolk, Sunday Oct. 5, 2025 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

A Navy band performs before President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a celebration for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Harry S. Truman at Naval Station Norfolk, Sunday Oct. 5, 2025 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

President Donald Trump greets Cape. Matt Schliemann, commanding officer of Naval Station Norfolk as he and first lady Melania Trump arrive on Air Force One at Naval Station Norfolk Chambers Field in Norfolk, Va., Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Sailors stand near a E-2 Hawkeye before President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a celebration for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Harry S. Truman at Naval Station Norfolk, Sunday Oct. 5, 2025 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Air Force One, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk from Marine One to board Air Force One, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

An F/A-18E fighter jet with President Donald Trump's name stenciled onto is seen aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norfolk, Va., Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

President Donald Trump speaks to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Crew members stand on the flight deck aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norfolk, Va., Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier sails in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norfolk, Va., Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

MADRID (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged Spaniards on Saturday to stop “fanning the flames of polarization” as he arrived in Spain at a moment of political turmoil for the Socialist-led government and a credibility crisis for the Catholic Church.

The American pontiff traveled to Spain dozens of times as a priest, but this is the first visit here by a pope in 15 years. And Spaniards turned out in droves to welcome Leo, with an estimated 500,000 people — many of them young — cheering “This is the youth of the pope” at a raucous evening prayer vigil in Plaza de Lima in Madrid, where Leo was treated to a rock star's welcome.

Leo's visit signals a return of papal attention to Europe’s Christian roots after Pope Francis largely stayed away from the traditional centers of Christianity in favor of smaller Catholic communities farther away.

Leo is seemingly keen to bring his message of peace, unity and human dignity to a continent sorely polarized over migration, the Russia-Ukraine war and anxiety over artificial intelligence.

The pope, known as León XIV in Spanish, opened his weeklong trip in Madrid, greeted at the airport by the country’s Catholic monarchs, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. He told reporters, while traveling, that he was particularly heartened by reports of a spiritual awakening among young people in the once-staunchly Catholic but now secularized country.

During his welcome address, Leo appealed to Spaniards, especially political leaders, to put polemics aside and invest in educating young people to appreciate diversity and complexity rather than shunning them.

“Today, the temptation to gain popularity by fanning the flames of polarization seems to have grown rather than diminished, and human dignity continues to be violated,” Leo said.

He appealed to Spain’s place at the heart of Christian Europe to serve as a model for the rest of the continent, while also recalling the country's 800-year Moorish past, when cities like Toledo and Córdoba became, he said, “centers of dialogue between languages, religions and knowledge.”

“For the love of truth, I invite everyone to set aside the divisive and polarizing narratives of your societal reality and history,” he said. Doing so will help Europe “overcome sterile simplifications through the fruitful appreciation of complexity.”

Spaniards find themselves increasingly divided over issues including immigration, feminism and political corruption, while historically Spain was riven by territorial and independence movements.

The highlight of Leo’s visit to Madrid will be his speech on Monday to a joint parliamentary session of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate — the first by a pope. Such speeches are rare and often become one of the most important of a pontificate.

But Leo will find a highly polarized legislature, with the government Socialist party hammered by a series of corruption scandals. Conservative parties, including the Popular Party and Vox, have called for Sánchez to step down before a general election due by next year, and have roundly criticized his government’s migration policies.

Spain’s Socialist-led government has bucked a general trend in Europe and the United States by announcing it will grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the country without authorization. Sánchez has highlighted the benefits of legal migration to the Spanish economy with an aging workforce and low birth rate.

Despite some expected protests of Leo’s visit, his speech to parliament in particular is something of a milestone for Spain’s Catholic Church. Shaped by the anticlerical violence of the country’s 1936-1939 civil war, the church has dealt more recently with a credibility crisis over revelations of decades of clergy abuse and cover-up.

And yet there are signs of renewed interest in all forms of spirituality, Christian and otherwise, especially among young Spaniards, said sociologist Narciso Michavila Núñez, president of the GAD3 consulting firm that polls young people about their faith, among other things.

In recent surveys, he said, pollsters are registering newfound interest in faith among Gen Z Spaniards. Michavila and others cite the popularity of Spanish pop star Rosalía’s new hit album “Lux,” which is overtly spiritual.

“The truth from a common view is not that God is in fashion. What is new in this moment, in this visit of the pope, is that God in the Spanish society is not a tattoo anymore,” he said.

Leo pointed to the signs of a spiritual awakening in comments to reporters en route to Madrid. But he also acknowledged that he's facing stiff competition from Bad Bunny, who is holding two concerts this weekend.

“If they are confronted with the question ‘Do you want to go see Bad Bunny or do you want to go to see the pope?’ I think many will see Bad Bunny,” Leo said. “But I think there will also be a few here to see the pope. And that says something, you know.”

In a sign that the clergy sexual abuse crisis continues to overshadow papal trips, Leo confirmed he would meet with survivors during his visit. The Spanish Catholic hierarchy is belatedly reckoning with decades of abuse and cover-up.

“Abuses are still an open wound,” he told reporters.

Spain's king also cited the church’s sexual abuse crisis in the country in his welcome speech, but he insisted such cases “neither are nor can be representative of the immense ecclesial community.”

“Your clarity and firmness, which I also wish to acknowledge, are essential in the process of healing and repairing the harm inflicted: they are essential for the victims, for the faithful, for the church, and for society,” Felipe told Leo, in an apparent reference to a recently launched church-state reparations system for some victims of clerical abuse.

Leo’s trip is the first papal visit to Spain since Pope Benedict XVI came in 2011 for World Youth Day.

After Madrid, the other highlights of the trip include Leo’s visit midweek to Barcelona, where he will celebrate Mass in the Sagrada Familia basilica on the centenary of the death of its famed architect, Antoni Gaudí.

Leo will also fulfill a wish of Francis by ending his visit with a two-day stop in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula and a key destination for migrants leaving West Africa.

Leo will meet with migrants and the humanitarian organizations providing care for them. He is expected to toss a wreath of flowers into the sea, in memory of migrants killed during the treacherous Atlantic crossing. He’ll do so from the port in Las Palmas that in 2020 earned the nickname the “Dock of Shame” because thousands of migrants were forced to sleep in the open for weeks on end during a spike in arrivals.

Francis had made reaching out to migrants and refugees a hallmark of his papacy, and Leo has followed suit by demanding dignified treatment of migrants, especially in his native U.S.

“For those of us who are immigrants and find ourselves in this situation of having family far away, someone like the pope — who is an important figure for the entire world — coming here is truly something that makes me say ‘wow,’” said Constantina Nchama, an immigrant from Equatorial Guinea.

“It’s something that happens once in a lifetime,” she said. “I’m very, very excited about that, truly.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV talks to Niurka, a mother of two, during his visit to the CEDIA 24 Horas Social Project center in Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of a seven-day apostolic journey to continental Spain and Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A group of nuns wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV during a prayer vigil with young people at Plaza de Lima in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of his seven-day apostolic visit to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

People wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV during a prayer vigil with young people at Plaza de Lima in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of his seven-day apostolic visit to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, as he arrives at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of his seven-day apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, as he arrives at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of his seven-day apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV arrives at Madrid's Adolfo Suarez International Airport, Saturday, June 6, 2026, as he starts a seven-day apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia upon his arrival at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas International Airport in Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, marking the start of his seven-day apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pilgrims walk through Madrid ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Pope Leo XIV talks to journalists aboard the papal flight from Rome to Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the occasion of his apostolic journey to Spain. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, Pool)

Visitors pose for photos beside a sign bearing the name of Pope Leo XIV in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Visitors pose for photos next to a sign bearing the name of Pope Leo XIV in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Pope Leo XIV arrives at Adolfo Suarez-Madrid Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026, at the start of a seven-day pastoral visit to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

FILE - Migrants disembark at the port of "La Estaca" in Valverde on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Aug. 26, 2024. Emergency services said the migrants arrived by boat after a 13-day voyage from Senegal. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)

Antoni Gaudí's Basilica of the Sagrada Familia stands at dusk in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, May 30, 2026, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Barcelona in June. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)