Pete Hegseth Hints At Restoring Original Confederate Names Of U.S. Military Bases

On his first day as defense secretary, Hegseth called Fort Liberty and Fort Moore by their former names, which belonged to treasonous Americans.

In his first remarks as President Donald Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth referred to two U.S. military bases by their former Confederate names, appearing to hint that he might possibly restore them.

Speaking to reporters on Monday ― his first day on the job after being narrowly confirmed by the Senate ― the National Guard veteran laid out what he envisions for the Pentagon under Trump’s administration. Hegseth expressed support for the president’s executive orders that would scrap the military’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, reinstate soldiers “who were pushed out because of COVID mandates” and create an Iron Dome-like missile defense system for the United States.

“Every moment that I’m here, I’m thinking about the guys and gals in Guam, in Germany, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg, on missile defense sites and aircraft carriers,” the former Fox News host said. “Our job is lethality and readiness and war-fighting.”

Fort Benning, as it was formerly known, sits on the Georgia-Alabama border and is home to the Army Infantry School. It was named after Henry L. Benning, a racist judge and Confederate brigadier general who led a Georgia military unit in Gen. John Hood’s division of the Army of Northern Virginia.

“By the time the north shall have attained the power, the black race will be in a large majority, and then we will have black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything,” Benning wrote to the Virginia secession convention in 1861. “Is it to be supposed that the white race will stand for that? It is not a supposable case.”