Donald Trump is angry, defiant and ready to defend his record as president, in spite of the controversies currently swirling around him.

That was the key takeaway from the president’s Coast Guard Academy commencement address, which started in a restrained manner but ended with a bellicose flourish.

The speech at times sounded more like one of his campaign rallies than an address to men and women about to serve in the military. When Mr Trump has been under fire in the past, however, he has upped the rhetoric and sounded the populist battle cry that got him to the top.

“Over the course of your life, you will find that things are not always fair,” Mr Trump said in Connecticut. “You will find that things happen to you that you do not deserve and that are not always warranted.”

The answer, he said, was to “put your head down and fight, fight, fight”.

Donald Trump may be against the ropes. He may be facing an uncertain future, with members of his own party quietly wondering whether to cut their president adrift in hopes of saving their own political fortunes.

But if he goes down – alone or with his party at his side – it looks like it’s going to be swinging.