NORFOLK, Va. — 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 cities 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 fiscal budget year started on Wednesday, Oct. 1. 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 refusal 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 and Washington. 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.

In his June speech for the 250th anniversary of the Army, Trump similarly broke 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 spoke of the Navy’s role during the Vietnam War, then asserted that the country lacked a will to win in that conflict and others.

“The problem with Vietnam, we, you know, we stopped fighting to win,” Trump said. “We would’ve won easy. We would’ve won Afghanistan easy. We would’ve won every war easy. But we got politically correct.”

The president received a medical exemption from the military during the Vietnam War after he was diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels, The New York Times has reported.

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.

Some of his more unusual statements circulated on social media Monday, from his claim that Jackson, the former White House physician, found him more physically fit than President Barack Obama to his assertion that he recognized the threat posed by Osama bin Laden prior to the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

“In the book I wrote — whatever the hell, the title, I can’t tell you. But I can tell you there’s a page in there devoted to the fact that I saw somebody named Osama bin Laden, and I didn’t like it, and you gotta take care of him. They didn’t do it. A year later, he blew up the World Trade Center. So we gotta take a little credit ‘cause nobody else is gonna give it to me."

Navy SEALS killed bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan in 2011 during the Obama administration.

Banner staff contributed to this report.