Trump Attacks ‘Overseas Adversary’ – DW – 06/11/2025

US President Donald Trump has announced that the United States military will reinstate the original names to bases that were renamed following the 2023 racial justice protests, which were sparked by the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in 2020.

“In addition, we plan to restore the names of Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill, and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump declared at Fort Bragg, which had been reverted to its original name earlier this year, from Fort Liberty.

“We won many battles from these forts. It’s not the time for a change,” he continued.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth bypassed a Congressional provision that had prohibited bases from bearing Confederate names, instead using the bases’ original names and citing that they were named after individuals with the same names as Confederate officials.

For instance, Fort Lee was initially named after Confederate commander Robert E. Lee and was later changed to Fort Gregg-Adams in 2023.

According to Trump’s new directive, it will now be known as Private Fitz Lee, who was a Medal of Honor recipient from the Spanish-American War.

Many Americans view Confederate symbols and base names as representations of white supremacy. The Confederacy consisted of US states that fought against the abolition of slavery, among other things, and was defeated in the American Civil War.