President Donald Trump said he would restore the names of military bases renamed by his predecessor Joe Biden, undoing an effort to make the armed forces more inclusive and halt the commemoration of former Confederate officers.

“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,” Trump said Tuesday during a visit to Fort Bragg in North Carolina to celebrate the 250th birthday of the US Army.

“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, right,” he added.

Names Honoring Confederates at Army bases

Fort Bragg is also a military facility that has been renamed under Trump. The base was previously named to honor a Confederate general, Braxton Bragg, but its name was changed to Fort Liberty under former President Biden’s administration, part of a broader effort to stop honoring individuals who took up arms against the US government during the Civil War.

That effort to rename military bases came after a national reckoning on race spurred by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis at the hands of police.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth renamed the installation Fort Bragg in February, but in honor of a different Bragg, this time commemorating Roland L. Bragg, a World War II veteran who was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for bravery during the Battle of the Bulge.

The fort had become a flashpoint for Trump and his supporters, who have been scrapping diversity, equity and inclusion practices within the federal government, and offers an example of how the new administration is moving to put its stamp on the armed forces and turn to the military to demonstrate his presidential powers and promote his agenda.

Trump devoted a sizable portion of his remarks to criticizing his predecessor and offering justification for his decision to deploy US troops to Los Angeles in response to protests over his deportation policies, mobilizing 700 Marines and augmenting National Guard personnel already on the ground despite the objections of state and local leaders.

“What you’re witnessing in California is a full blown assault on peace, on public order and a national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country. We’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said.

US law generally bars the use of the active-duty US military — the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — from carrying out domestic law enforcement. The state of California is suing the administration, saying that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard was unlawful.

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Trump in his first term also sought to lean on the military as a show of force but was blocked by members of his Cabinet. This time, the president has stocked his team with loyalists less resistant to those efforts.

Trump’s visit to Fort Bragg is part of a week of festivities aimed at celebrating the Army, culminating in a large-scale military parade on Saturday in Washington, DC, that also coincides with his own 79th birthday.

Saturday’s military parade in Washington will be the showcase for the celebrations over the Army’s birthday. The parade is expected to involve thousands of soldiers as well as 150 military vehicles and 50 aircraft, and the US Army estimates the festivities will cost between $25 million and $40 million.

Trump on Monday defended the plans and the costs, claiming he and other donors would be personally covering many of the expenses and hailing it as an opportunity to “celebrate our military.”

The president told reporters at the White House there would be “tanks all over the place” and that “thousands and thousands of soldiers going to bravely march down the streets.”

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.