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Trump Vows to Stop Army Bases Being Renamed—But Is Powerless to Do So

President Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon that he would not allow Army bases named after Confederate generals to be renamed.

President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon that his administration would not consider renaming any of the ten army bases named after Confederate generals, calling them “part of a Great American Heritage.” However, the power to rename Army bases does not lie with the president. Base naming and renaming is the responsibility of the assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, a job currently assigned to retired Army officer Casey Wardynski.

The Army announced Tuesday that it would be open to replacing the names of the ten bases bearing Confederate-tied names, including Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Benning in Georgia. The NAACP has long advocated for such a change, and as recently as February, the Army rejected such a proposition. Both the Marine Corps and the Navy have taken steps to remove Confederate iconography from their service, banning Confederate imagery from public spaces on their installations.