President Trump Threatens to Veto Legislation Changing Names of Military Bases Named After Confederate Generals

President Donald Trump threatened to veto any edition of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that requires the renaming of U.S. military bases named after Confederate Army generals. Democratic Senators, including Elizabeth Warren, are pushing a provision that will rename the facilities.

The President made it clear any NDAA that renames that bases won’t receive his signature. In a tweet, President Trump cited the legacy of the bases in America’s victory in the two World Wars of the twentieth century.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1278176059876401152

Republicans had declined to stand up against the drive to purge the names of iconic American military installations such as Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, with only populist conservative Josh Hawley offering opposition to the cultural cleansing attempt when it passed through the Democrat-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee.

Polling conducted on the matter reveals that a strong majority of the American public opposes purging the names of the bases from record because of their association with the Confederacy.

There are ten total U.S. Army bases named after Confederate military leaders, most of them located in the southern United States and named as such as a gesture of reconciliation to the South in the Reconstruction period and beyond.