Donald Trump’s name changes from America to Fort Bragg

President Donald Trump has always understood the power of the brand. As a celebrity businessman, he placed his name to the facades of his skyscrapers and authorized his name to a variety of products, from hotels to wines.

Now, he is trying to his boldest brand campaign: United States itself.

On his first day back in office, he signed an order that renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Denali, the indigenous name of the famous Peak of Alaska, will return to Mount McKinley, a reference to the president of the 19th century killed.

Fort Bragg, who was appointed by a Confederate General until the Army changed it to Fort Liberty, will support its original name again, but this time it was attributed to a much less controversial soldier of World War II.

Trump is not the first president of the United States to change the name of a monument. It was Barack Obama, a Democrat, who renamed Mount McKinley in his name as Native Americans, Denali, after years of lobbying of the inhabitants of Alaska.

George W Bush, a Republican, renamed the Caribbean National Forest in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to the National Forest of El Yunque in 2007, to reflect the inheritance of the territory of the United States.

And then The murder of George Floyd in 2020 It caused a national calculation in the race, Congress initiated a process to change the name of the US military bases that bear the name of the Confederate figures. In 2023, during the presidency of Joe Biden, the Department of Defense renamed nine US military bases, including Fort Bragg.

In the heart of these decisions there is a desire to portray the United States and its values, in a particular light.

“The act of appointing is a way in which presidents can remodel their vision of the nation,” said Allison Prasch, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies political rhetoric.

Trump’s elections in their second term also send a clear message about their priorities, he said.

“It is raising a very nationalist imperialist vision of the United States,” Prasch said.

Some of Trump’s name options are calls to call to the expansionist era of the United States, when the prevailing ideology said that the United States had a mission given by God to expand from the coast to the coast.

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

It is an ideology that seems to inform Trump today too, since the idea of ​​resuming the Panama Canal has also floated, which had once been under American control, buying Greenland and annexing Canada to become the “State 51”.

Meanwhile, rename Fort Bragg is the last in an ongoing debate on the legacy of the Confederation: the coalition of the southern states that separated from the United States on the issue of slavery and triggered the civil war.

During Trump’s first administration, in the midst of a national calculation on racial injustice, Congress required the Pentagon to rename the facilities that bear the name of the confederates and future military facilities prohibited by their name.

The measure considered Trump, who tried to veto the measure and declared that “our history as the greatest nation in the world will not be manipulated!” Congress annulled him with bipartisan support.

But historian Connor Williams, who served in the name change committee that had recommended that the name Bragg was eliminated in 2021, said that honor the confederation is wrong.

“What causes such bad issues to commemorate them is that they have very little to redeem them,” said Williams. “They committed betrayal against the United States.”

“What we commemorate, what we celebrate, what the public shows what we do, where we place crowns: the president has that ability to indicate what he thinks is important,” he added.

In 2023, the Biden administration changed Fort Bragg, which bears the name of the Confederate General Braxton Bragg, Fort Liberty.

“We took this opportunity to improve and seek excellence,” said Lieutenant General Christopher Donahue at the name change ceremony. “That’s what we have always done and we will always do it.”

However, the name change caused feelings found among legislators, the former military personnel who spent time there and the local community.

“I understand the reasoning behind the change, and I have to accept it because it is what the elected leadership has determined is the best for According to local media. “But I hate that so many people who have had positive experiences in Fort Bragg, who have had children born there, weddings there, that will no longer have that layer of Fort Bragg in the name.”

This week, Trump’s new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, restored the name of the base to Fort Bragg. But this time, he said that the base will bear the name of Roland Bragg of First Private Class, who fought in World War II, instead of a confederate general.

“That’s right,” said Hegseth. “Bragg has returned.”

Republican legislators representing the base expressed enthusiasm for change.

“Renaming Fort Bragg for PFC. Roland L. Bragg, who obtained the Silver Star and Purple Heart in World War II, was always the right decision,” wrote the Senator of North Carolina, Ted Budd, on Facebook.

But at the national level, many of Trump’s name changes have proven to be controversial. A survey from the University of Marquette suggested that 71% of American adults did not support the change of the Gulf of Mexico, and only 29% supported it.

Some of the changes have caused debates whose vision of American history should be officially standing.

A Alaska Survey Research survey suggested that 47% of Alaska Trump voters favored the name change. But in general, the Alaska opposed the change of name by a margin of two to one, the Juana Express reported.

The Democrats and the Republicans in the Alaska Legislature joined to approve a resolution that urge Trump not to change Denali’s name.

“Officially changing the name would not only dishonor those who have fought to protect Denali’s legacy, but also discard the voices of the native communities whose roots are intertwined with this land,” said Alaska’s representative, Maxine Dibert, Democrat and Member of the natives of the natives. Community Athabascan de Koyukon.

Time will say if Trump’s symbolic name changes duration. But the arguments about them do not show signs of decreasing.

This week, the White House blocked a reporter from Associated Press from the Oval office this week because the wire service kept the Gulf of Mexico in its popular style guide. The Executive Editor of AP, Julie Pace, described the decision as “alarming” and said she violated the rights of freedom of expression of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Google, who now uses the name of the Gulf of America on its maps for US users., Has begun to eliminate negative reviews of the name change.

Rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America could be a land (or water) only on paper, but its symbolism is undeniable, said Mrs. Prasch, professor of political rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin.

And it goes beyond geography to achieve an chord on how the country looks itself and its history.

“In fact, I think this is much more than rename a body of water on a map,” he said. “It is a fundamentally rhetorical decision on how we think about the history of the nation.”