Trump orders names restored to Army bases honoring Confederate leaders

Driving the news: Trump made the announcement during a visit to North Carolina's Fort Bragg.

• "We are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee," he said.
• "We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It's no time to change. And I'm superstitious, you know? I like to keep it going."

Zoom in: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum to reverse the name of Fort Bragg in February, which had been rechristened as the Fort Liberty Army base in 2023.

• The base was originally named after a Confederate general, Braxton Bragg, though the new name commemorated a different Bragg — Roland L. Bragg, a World War II veteran, according to the Pentagon.

Flashback: The Naming Commission recommended nine different Army bases for redesignation, completing the project in 2023.

• It was established in 2020 after George Floyd's death brought widespread attention to systemic racism, and Biden eventually replaced Trump's own appointees.
• The commission also recommended renaming hundreds of other locations, including streets and buildings on military installations.

Fort Bragg became symbolic for Trump and MAGA supporters, with the president rejecting diversity efforts everywhere from the federal government payroll to Harvard University.