Spree of violence sparks curfew as Trump vilifies ‘alien foe’ – DW – November 6, 2025

US President Donald Trump has declared that military bases, which had their names changed following the 2023 racial justice protests in response to the killing of George Floyd, will have their original names reinstated.

“We’re going to restore the original names of Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort AP Hill, and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump announced at Fort Bragg, whose name had been reverted to Fort Bragg from Fort Liberty earlier in the year.

“We won plenty of battles out of those forts. It’s not the time for changes,” he remarked.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth bypassed a Congressional directive that prohibited military bases from bearing Confederate names. Instead, he used the bases’ original names, claiming that they were named after individuals with the same names as Confederate officials.

For instance, Fort Lee was initially named for Civil War Confederate commander Robert E. Lee and was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in 2023.

Under Trump’s new directive, it will be renamed after Private Fitz Lee, a Medal of Honor recipient from the Spanish-American War.

Many Americans view Confederate flags and base names as symbols of white supremacy. The Confederate States of America were those states within the US that fought against the abolition of slavery, among other causes, and were defeated in the American Civil War.