President Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that the Pentagon will reinstate the names of seven military bases previously named after Confederate leaders, including Fort Picket, Fort Hood, and Fort Robert E. Lee, during an address at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His announcement came as part of a celebration marking the Army's 250th anniversary, just months after two similar name changes were made earlier this year.
The military installations are currently designated as Fort Barfoot in Virginia, Fort Cazavos in Texas, Fort Eisenhower in Georgia, Fort Novosel in Alabama, Fort Johnson in Louisiana, Fort Walker in Virginia, and Fort Gregg-Adams in Virginia, in that order.
“It’s no time to change,” Trump told the gathered crowd in North Carolina. “And I’m superstitious, you know? I like to keep it going, right?”
The announcement faced severe backlash on social media.
Political podcaster Tim Miller wrote: "So upset about the Mexican flag that we are renaming bases after literal traitors to the country."
Author Seth Abramson wrote: "Nothing could possibly be more on-brand for this traitor to the Constitution than gleefully announcing that he will be renaming a number of his bases after traitors to the Constitution."
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Legal analyst Eric Columbus wrote: "Unless Trump is — as he did with Fort Bragg! — renaming it after a *different*, non-Confederate Robert E Lee, this violates a law that passed when Congress overrode his veto five days before January 6."
CBS News journalist Jim LaPorta said: "Perhaps it will be a different 'Robert E. Lee' but if not, not surprising. Trump once said if Lee were to have commanded U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the country would have seen victory: “What an embarrassment we are suffering because we don’t have the genius of a Robert. E. Lee!'"
Journalist Rob Tornoe noted: "During the early- to mid-20th century, the Army specifically named bases in the South after Confederate 'heroes' to appease racists and white nationalists upset over the allowance of more minority troops."
Legal analyst Jeffrey Evan Gold commented: 'Hitler's personal train was called Amerika because he admired America's racism, and so making America racist again seems very appropriate for Trumplandia."