Get up to speed with SOFREP’s Morning Brief, your daily rundown of key developments in defense and global affairs for June 11, 2025. President Trump has reinstated Confederate-era base names, reversing recent renaming tied to racial justice reforms. In Los Angeles, city officials imposed a downtown curfew after protests erupted over immigration raids and a controversial military deployment. Meanwhile, the Trump administration moved to revoke national monument protections to open more land to energy projects. On the international front, US allies sanctioned far-right Israeli ministers over West Bank violence, and Israel struck Houthi targets in Yemen following new missile attacks. Denmark is investing $919 million in air defenses amid rising Russian threats, while the UN warned that Myanmar is on the brink of collapse without an end to its civil war. Finally, US-China trade talks in London yielded a deal to stabilize their fragile tariff truce.

 

Trump Orders Reinstatement of Confederate-Era Army Base Names, Scraps Recent Renamings

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that all US Army bases renamed in recent years to distance the military from Confederate ties will revert to their original names. Speaking at Fort Bragg, Trump said, “We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change, and I’m superstitious — we want to keep it going.”

The move reverses 2023 reforms enacted after a congressional review directed the Army to replace nine base names honoring Confederate leaders. Many were renamed after US war heroes, such as Medal of Honor recipients and military advocates.

For example, Fort Moore honored Vietnam War hero Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia, while Fort A.P. Hill was renamed for Union surgeon Mary Edwards Walker.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led the reversal, restoring names like Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, while also selecting alternate honorees to maintain some distinction from the original Confederate figures.

Trump’s administration further rolled back symbolic changes by removing the name of gay rights icon Harvey Milk from a Navy ship and considering changes to ships named after Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Harriet Tubman.