Neither President Donald Trump nor Vice President JD Vance will give the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame this spring, a development that both appears to be a break from tradition and is likely to raise concerns about partisanship.

The Catholic university typically invites the newly inaugurated president or vice president to address the graduating class, but neither figure from the administration was mentioned in Notre Dame’s March 18 announcement about its upcoming commencement speaker.

Instead, Adm. Christopher Grady, a Notre Dame alumnus and the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will give the May 18 speech, the university announced.

In its release, Notre Dame gave no indication whether Trump or Vance had been invited to speak. Neither Notre Dame nor the offices of the president or vice president responded to a Register inquiry into the matter before publication.

The development is the latest in a long line of controversies connected to Notre Dame’s selection of a commencement speaker, a significant designation, given that it comes with the reception of an honorary degree from the prestigious Catholic university and a prominent platform from which to address an influential Catholic audience. The news came just ahead of the announcement from a nearby Catholic college in northern Indiana who has chosen  controversial speaker for their commencement ceremony. 

The absence of Trump and Vance from 2025 commencement activities is likely to elicit accusations of partisanship, as Notre Dame previously skipped over Trump in 2017, but extended an invitation to Joe Biden in 2021. 

In 2017, then-Vice President Mike Pence was invited in Trump’s stead. Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president from 2005 to 2024, said at the time that it was to avoid the kind of “political circus” that had ensued in 2009 when pro-abortion-rights President Barack Obama was invited to speak. 

But Father Jenkins said in an interview last year that Trump was not invited because he did not meet “a certain bar in terms of just moral decency.”

Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president who nonetheless advanced policies contrary to Church doctrine on fundamental moral issues like abortion and marriage, declined his invitation due to scheduling conflicts, although he received the university’s Laetare Medal in 2016.

Vance is only the second Catholic vice president of the United States, making his absence from the university’s commencement plans additionally conspicuous, especially after Notre Dame invited Trump’s previous vice president.

Trump and Vance’s absence also comes at a time when Notre Dame is in the crosshairs of the new administration. The White House’s increase of the university endowment tax has prompted a campus-wide hiring freeze, while Notre Dame is being targeted by the federal government over DEI promotion.

Additionally, the Trump administration has come into conflict with Catholic entities like Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities, as the White House aims to cut off funding for migrant assistance and foreign aid. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has also sued the Trump administration for abruptly suspending funds to its refugee-resettlement program, an initiative that Vance previously suggested was motivated by padding the bishops’ “bottom line.”

 

Campus Debate

The news that neither Trump nor Vance will be speaking at Notre Dame this spring comes after a monthslong campus debate about whether either should be invited.

On Feb. 7, Notre Dame’s official student newspaper issued an editorial urging the university to invite Trump, citing new university president Holy Cross Father Robert Dowd’s call for debate and overcoming political polarization.

“Even when a speaker is divisive, the office they hold — and the ideas they bring — demand engagement, not retreat,” wrote the editors of The Observer.

The Observer’s editorial elicited responses from Notre Dame’s Democrat and Republican student groups, respectively opposed to and supportive of the president being invited. The Democrats argued that Trump’s hardline rhetoric and policies related to immigration contradicted Church teaching, while the GOP group defended the president’s actions and argued that not inviting him would be divisive.

Meanwhile, the idea of inviting Vance, who became Catholic in 2019, was put forward by The Irish Rover student newspaper immediately after the 2024 presidential election.

Bridgette Rodgers, executive editor of the independent Catholic publication, argued that while Vance has supported intrinsic evils like IVF and access to mifepristone for abortive purposes, he is still a far more compelling example of a Catholic in public life than is Biden.

“[Inviting Vance] would show students that one does not have to sacrifice one’s faith to be successful, and further, that all success is ultimately rooted in living out the faith,” Rodgers wrote.

Other voices at Notre Dame have suggested that the practice of inviting incoming presidents to address campus should continue but should be separated from commencement activities and honorary degrees.

Openness to Trump seems to be the norm, not the exception, on the South Bend, Indiana, campus. A September 2024 poll found that 48% of Notre Dame students favored Trump, while 46% preferred Biden. The support for Trump was remarkable, considering that the Republican had only received 29% of student support in a poll conducted before the 2020 election.

 

Breaking Tradition?

Notre Dame began its practice of inviting incoming presidents to deliver the commencement address in 1960, with Dwight Eisenhower. Presidents John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush delivered the ceremonial speech, as did George W. Bush and Obama in the 2000s.

Obama’s 2009 appearance was especially controversial, given his support for federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research and his aggressive push to expand abortion access. The Democrat politician’s presence resulted in campus protests, a boycott by the local bishop, and criticism from then-USCCB president Cardinal Francis George, who said Notre Dame had caused “extreme embarrassment” to the Catholic faithful.

The decision also seemed to contradict the U.S. bishops’ clear guidance that “Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”

The Trump administration is effectively “pro-choice,” but given Notre Dame’s recent decision to honor politicians like Obama and Biden — who both were far more overtly in favor of abortion rights than is Trump —  fidelity to the U.S. bishops’ guidance was likely not a deciding factor in the administration’s discernment of whether to invite Trump or Vance.

Father Jenkins had previously defended the university’s practice of inviting U.S. presidents as an instance of Notre Dame living up to its call to be a place for “fruitful dialogue between the Gospel and culture.” He has also stressed that inviting speakers with views that differ from the Catholic faith should not be taken as an endorsement.

Father Dowd, who began his presidency this summer, has similarly called for Notre Dame to be “bridge-builder” in an increasingly divided climate.

But even before today’s news was delivered, some worried that not inviting a representative from the Trump White House would amount to Notre Dame’s abdication of that role.

“Notre Dame has never been a place for intellectual cowardice,” wrote The Observer editors back in February. “It should not start now.”

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article mistakenly referred to Joe Biden as the first Catholic U.S. president. The intended reference was to his status as the second, following John F. Kennedy. The Register regrets the error.

Disclaimer: Liedl is on the board of directors of The Irish Rover.