Donald Trump announced that he will be changing back the names of military bases that used to be named after Confederate officers that President Joe Biden renamed during his time in the White House. The news comes as the Trump administration is planning to remove the names of civil rights leaders, including Harvey Milk, from Navy ships.

“For a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Ft. Pickett, Ft. Hood, Ft. Gordon, Ft. Rucker, Ft. Polk, Ft. A.P. Hill, and Ft. Robert E. Lee,” Trump told servicemembers at Ft. Bragg yesterday, adding that Biden couldn’t get a crowd that size to one of his speeches as the crowd booed their former commander-in-chief.

Related

Pete Hegseth orders Navy to remove Harvey Milk’s name from ship during Pride Month
One high-profile Democrat has called the move “spiteful,” “shameful,” and “vindictive.”

Those forts were all named after Confederate military officers who took up arms against the United States in an effort to continue the enslavement of Black people. Biden renamed them all to honor other military heroes who fought for the U.S. instead of against the country.

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

The announcement comes days after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the USNS Harvey Milk – named for the gay civil rights leader – would be renamed, likely due to the Trump administration’s opposition to LGBTQ+ people’s equal rights. The U.S. Navy said that it’s just one of several ships named for a civil rights leader that will be renamed, including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Lucy Stone.

Hegseth has also been rolling back the military’s celebrations of cultural awareness months and has been firing women and Black people in military leadership roles.

After Trump’s announcement at Ft. Bragg, the military said that the forts would only have the same name as they did prior to the Biden administration but would not actually be named for Confederate officers. Instead, they said that they plan to rename the bases after U.S. military officers who happen to have the same name as the Confederate officers the bases were previously named after.

For example, Ft. Gordon in Georgia was originally named after Confederate Gen. John Brown Gordon. Biden renamed it Ft. Eisenhower after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was also a five-star Army general and served as 1st Supreme Allied Commander Europe before becoming president.

An Army spokesperson told CBS News that the base will now be named after Master Sgt. Gary I. Gordon, who died while serving in Somalia in the early 90s.

Trump already renamed Ft. Bragg earlier this year. It was originally named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. Biden renamed it Ft. Liberty, and, in February of this year, Trump changed the name back to Ft. Bragg, but said that it was named after Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

The reason Biden renamed all those bases and the Trump administration is now playing this game of naming them after U.S. military servicemembers who have the same name as Confederate generals is that Congress passed a law in 2021 banning the military from naming things after Confederates, since they were traitors. That law was passed over Trump’s veto.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.