Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signs a memorandum to rename Fort Liberty, N.C., to Fort Roland L. Bragg, while aboard a military aircraft en route to Germany, Feb. 10, 2025. Credit: Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza, DOD

The Trump administration is making a mockery of a well-designed system the U.S. government has long employed for naming important places for historical figures.

The latest example: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s too-clever-by-half move to rename North Carolina’s Fort Liberty Army base as Fort Bragg.

The name was changed from Bragg to Liberty just a couple years back at the conclusion of a long overdue process designed to end the practice of honoring officers of the Confederacy like General Braxton Bragg who took up arms against the U.S. during the Civil War.

Unfortunately, such processes and values don’t mean anything to Trump and Hegseth so they’ve revived the name Bragg, while claiming it now honors a World War II private with the same surname.

Please. What’s next? A base named after a Korean War marine named Robert E. Lee?

The bottom line: Hegseth can cloak the move however he likes, but its true purpose as another attack on racial justice and basic norms of democratic governance is patently obvious.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.