Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that he has directed the Pentagon to restore the original names of seven U.S. Army bases that once honored Confederate generals, fulfilling a campaign promise to reverse changes made during the Biden administration.
The announcement came during a speech at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where Trump marked the Army’s 250th anniversary.
“For a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk and Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump told the crowd.
“We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change,” Trump said. “And I’m superstitious, you know, I like to keep it going, right? I’m very superstitious.”
Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reinstated the names Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, reversing the Biden-era renaming of those installations. Fort Bragg had been changed to honor Private First Class Roland Bragg, a World War II paratrooper, instead of Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. Fort Benning had been renamed for World War I hero Cpl. Fred G. Benning rather than Confederate Lt. Gen. Henry Benning.
The Biden administration approved the renaming of nine bases in 2023 following a process initiated in 2021 amid nationwide protests and calls for racial justice. President Joe Biden signed legislation directing the changes, and a commission recommended new names such as Fort Barfoot, Fort Cavazos, Fort Eisenhower, and Fort Liberty.
Reverting the base names could take several months to implement, according to Politico.
President Trump pledged to change the name back during his campaign while on a campaign stop in North Carolina.
“We did win two world wars from Fort Bragg, right?” Trump said at the rally. “We’re going to get it back. We’re going to bring our country back.”
The name change controversy arose after the 2020 George Floyd protests. The Department of Defense later led a name-change initiative to rename several bases that included the names of Confederate soldiers. Fort Bragg was renamed in 2023 under former President Joe Biden.
