July 19, 2020

President Donald Trump suggested that bases named after Confederate soldiers should not be renamed because he could think of no Black war heroes deserving of the honor.

Trump made the remarks during an interview in which Fox News host Chris Wallace noted that legislation funding the Department of Defense could also force some bases to be renamed.

"You're going to veto that?" Wallace asked.

'I did more for the military than any president!" Trump exclaimed.

"But you're going to veto this bill?" Wallace pressed.

"I think that Ft. Bragg, Ft. Robert E. Lee -- all of these forts that have been named that way for a long time -- decades and decades," the president opined.

"But the military says they are for this," Wallace pointed out.

"Excuse me," Trump continued. "I don't care what the military says. I'm supposed to make the decision. Ft. Bragg is a big deal. We won two world wars. Nobody even knows Gen. Bragg."

"What are we going to name it," he added, seemingly at a loss for the names of Black war heroes. "You going to name it after the Rev. Al Sharpton? What are you going to name it, Chris? Tell me what you're going to name it."

Trump reminded the Fox News host that the United States "won two beautiful world wars that were vicious and horrible."

"And now, they want to throw those names away," he complained. "And I'm against that."

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