Trump rules out renaming U.S. bases named for Confederate leaders

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday rejected any proposal to rename U.S. military bases that are named for Confederate leaders from the 1860s Civil War, dismissing appeals made in the wake of the death of African American George Floyd.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday rejected any proposal to rename U.S. military bases that are named for Confederate leaders from the 1860s Civil War, dismissing appeals made in the wake of the death of African American George Floyd. As many as 10 bases carry the names of Confederate leaders, including Fort Bragg in North Carolina, one of the largest in the United States, and Fort Hood in Texas. Discussions about renaming them have emerged as a way of achieving racial reconciliation.

"The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations...," Trump wrote in a tweet. The root cause of the Civil War was the enslavement of African Americans. Slavery's legacy continues to haunt race relations.

In the past few days, officials have said that the Pentagon, including Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, was open to having a bipartisan conversation about renaming Army bases named for Confederate leaders. Fort Hood, for example, is named for General John Bell Hood. In an article published Tuesday in The Atlantic, retired General and former CIA chief David Petraeus called for renaming the bases, pointing out that the men they are named for "committed treason, however much they may have agonized over it" by fighting for the Confederacy.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany, at a news briefing, noted that HBO had withdrawn the Civil War movie "Gone with the Wind" and asked, "Where do you draw the line?" "Should George Washington and Thomas Jefferson be erased from history?," she said of the first and third American presidents, both whom owned slaves.

She said renaming the bases was "an absolute non-starter for the president."