Donald Trump's name changes from Fort Brag Bay

President Donald Trump has always understood the power of branding. As a celebrity businessman, he put his name to the facades of his skyscrapers and licensed his name as an array of products, from hotels to wines.

He is now trying to be his most bold branding campaign so far: America itself.

On his first day, he signed an order to rename the Mexican Gulf to America. Denali, the root name for the famous Alaska peak, will return to McKinley Mountain, a reference to the 19th -century killed president.

Fort Brag, who was named after the Confederation General, while the military changed him to Fort Liberti, will again bear their original name – but this time it is attributed to a far less controversial soldier than World War II.

Trump is not the first US president to rename a monument. It was Barack Obama, Democrat, who renamed Mount McKinley to his Indian name Denali, after years of Alaskan lobbying.

George W Bush, a Republican, renamed the Caribbean National Forest in the Puerto Rico Community to the 2007 El Yunque National Forest to reflect the heritage in the United States.

And after The murder of George Floyd in 2020 It has caused national considered race, Congress has launched a process to rename US military bases, called Confederate figures. In 2023, during the Presidency of Joe Biden, the Ministry of Defense renamed nine US military bases, including Fort Brag.

At the heart of these decisions is a desire to depict America and its values ​​in a particular light.

“The act of name is a way that presidents can reshape their vision for the nation,” says Alison Prash, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Medison, who studies political rhetoric.

The choice of Trump in his second term sends a clear message about his priorities, she said.

“He elevates a very nationalist, imperialist vision of the United States,” said Da Prash.

Some of Trump's name is the opposite calls to the expansionist era of America, when the prevailing ideology said America had a mission given by God to expand from shore to shore.

Part of President William McKinley's legacy was his role in the annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and Hawaii. Changing the name of Denali, Trump said he wanted to honor McKinley because “made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.”

It is an ideology that seems to be informed by Trump today, as it also saves the idea of ​​returning the Panama Canal, which was once under the control of the United States, buying Greenland and annexing Canada to become the “51st country”.

Meanwhile, the renaming of Fort Brag is the most recent debate on the legacy of the Confederation – the coalition of the southern states, which separated from the United States on the issue of slavery and caused the Civil War.

During the first Trump administration, against the backdrop of national regard as racial injustice, Congress requires the Pentagon to rename facilities called Confederates and prohibition of future military installations to be baptized on them.

This move ranked Trump then, who tried to veto the measure and stated that “our story as the most big nation in the world will not be forged!” Congress canceled it with bilateral support.

But historian Connor Williams, who served on the renaming committee, who recommended that the name Bragg be removed in 2021, said the reverence of the Confederation was misled.

“What makes the Confederates such bad topics for commemoration is that they have very little to buy them,” Williams said. “They made a betrayal against the United States.”

“What we note, what we are celebrating, what publicly shows where we put wreaths – the president has this ability to signal what he thinks is important,” he added.

In 2023, Biden's administration amended Fort Brag, named after Confederate General Braxton Brag, in Fort Liberty.

“We have taken this opportunity to improve and seek excellence,” said Lieutenant General Christopher Donahu at the renaming ceremony. “This is what we have always done and we will always do.”

However, the name change caused mixed feelings among the legislators, the former serviceman who spent time there and the local community.

“I understand the reflections of change and must accept it, because this is what the chosen guide has determined is in the best interest,” said the Class Commissioner Kamberland Jimmy Kiif at the time According to local mediaS “But I hate that so many people who have had positive experiences in Fort Brag who gave birth to children born there, weddings there that they will no longer have this supporter of Fort Brag in the name.”

This week, Trump Pete Heget's new Minister of Defense has restored the Fort Bragg base name. But this time he said that the base would be named after the private first -class Roland Brag, who fought in World War II, not the Confederation General.

“That's right,” Heget said. “Brag is back.”

Republican legislators representing the base expressed enthusiasm about change.

“The renaming of Fort Brag for PFC. Roland L. Brag, who won the silver star and the purple heart during World War II, was always the right solution,” writes North Carolina Senator Ted Bud on Facebook.

But on a national scale, many of the changes in the name of Trump have proven to be controversial. A poll at Market University suggested that 71% of adults in the United States did not support the change in the Gulf of Mexico and only 29% support it.

Some of the changes have caused debate about the vision of American history to officially stand.

A study survey in Alaska suggests that 47% of Trump's voters in Alaska support the change of name. But in general, Alaskan opposed the change of name with a short to two to one, Juneau Express reported.

Democrats and Republicans in Alaska's legislation agreed to undergo a resolution calling for Trump not to change Denali's name.

“To formally change the name would not only only want only those who have struggled to defend Denali's heritage, but also to reject the votes of local communities whose roots are intertwined with this land,” said Alaska Maxin Dibert, Democrat and Member of the Native Population Community Koyukon ATHABASCAN.

Time will show whether Trump's symbolic changes are withstand. But the arguments for them show no signs of retreat.

This week, the White House is blocking an Associated Press reporter from the Oval Office this week as the Wire service supports the Gulf of Mexico in its popular style guide. AP executive editor Julie Pace called the decision “anxious” and said it violated the rights to the constitution of free speech.

Google – who now uses the name Gulf America on its cards for US users – has started to delete negative reviews for the change of name.

The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf Gulf can only be land (or water) on paper, but its symbolism is indisputable, said G -ja Prash, a professor of political rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin.

And it goes beyond geography to hit the chord on how the country looks at itself – and its history.

“In fact, I think this is much more than renaming a water body to a map,” she said. “This is a basic rhetorical solution to how we think about the history of the nation.”