Vice President Vance marked the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on Saturday, delivering a tribute to the service while promising the Trump administration would refocus the military on “discipline, readiness and faith in one another” rather than “diversity quotas.”

Speaking before hundreds of Marines and sailors from units across Southern California, the vice president drew on his own four years of service in the Corps, telling the crowd he “would not be the man I am today” without his time as a Marine.

“When officials try to shift focus to mandating diversity quotas or they try to inject partisan politics into the American armed forces, they impede the Marine Corps’s ability to do its best work,” Vance said.

“When officials try to shift focus to mandating diversity quotas or they try to inject partisan politics into the American armed forces, they impede the Marine Corps’ ability to do its best work,” Vance said.

“That’s why the secretary of war and the president of the United States have stood so firmly against that crap.”

Before Vance spoke, US Marines held an exercise in which they stormed the beaches at Camp Pendleton as part of a demonstration of the service branch’s military might for Vance.

Vance, who enlisted in the Marines and served during the Iraq War, also used his speech to the military to blast Democrats — pinning the blame for the shutdown on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

He told Marines on Saturday that President Trump “is proud of you” and “he loves you.”

“Despite the Schumer shutdown, he is going to do everything he can to make sure you get paid exactly as you deserve,” the vice president told the gathered Marine Corps. troops at Camp Pendleton.

Vance also criticized Congressional Democrats, saying “they want to keep the goverment shut down even though it would mean a lot of you would not get your pay check.”

The vice president joked that “if we don’t pay our enlisted Marines, every bar in Southern California is going to go out of business, and we don’t want that.”

Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance watched a live-fire “amphibious assault demonstration” at Camp Pendleton’s Red Beach, according to the White House.

The planned demonstration, which took place near the I-5 freeway, set off its own war of words between Vance’s office and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The Marine Corps’ plan to fire 155-millimeter artillery shells over Interstate 5 during a live-fire demonstration at Camp Pendleton set off a heated clash between Newsom and Vance’s office ahead of the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary celebration.

Newsom blasted the exercise as “a profoundly absurd show of force that could put Californians directly in harm’s way,” calling it an example of “using our military to intimidate people you disagree with.”

He said the plan was “reckless, it’s disrespectful, and it’s beneath the office the president holds.”

The Democratic governor announced that the state would shut a 17-mile stretch of the freeway from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, citing “potential hazards posed by the military’s plans.”

Vance’s communications director, William Martin, pushed back sharply, saying: “Gavin Newsom wants people to think this exercise is dangerous. The Marine Corps says it’s an established and safe practice.”

“If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead.”

The state’s decision to close the freeway defied federal guidance, which held that I-5 could remain open.

Newsom said state highway officials concluded the live-fire display created “an extreme safety risk and a distraction to drivers because of unexpected and loud explosions.”

Marine officials countered that M777 artillery guns had “historically been fired during routine training from land-based artillery firing points west of I-5 into impact areas east of the interstate within existing safety protocols and without the need to close the route.”

“Governor Newsom is spreading Fake News to Californians to fearmonger and score cheap political points,” said Vance spokeswoman Taylor Van Kirk.

Several military bigwigs attended the event at a time when the US military has been building up forces around Venezuela and carrying out strikes on a succession of alleged drug boats.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was in attendance as was Navy Secretary John Phelan and Marine Commandant Eric M. Smith.

Vance flew to San Diego Friday night to participate. It’s an anniversary of special significance for the 41-year-old vice president. He enlisted in the service after graduating high school in Ohio, serving four years in the Marines — including a stint in Iraq.

Vance traveled with second lady Usha Vance, a San Diego native, and brought along their three kids on the flight to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

He wrote in his book “Hillbilly Elegy” about how “the Marine Corps taught me how to live like an adult.”

“In the Marines, my boss didn’t just make sure I did a good job, he made sure I kept my room clean, kept my hair cut, and ironed my uniforms,” he said, adding the Marines “changed the expectations that I had for myself.