Fort Liberty Is Once Again Fort Bragg

UPDATE Feb 11, 2025 12:00 AM CST

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday signed a memorandum making good on one of President Trump's campaign promises: Fort Liberty is once again Fort Bragg. The memo declared the Army would rename it as such, though it's now named after Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, who won a Purple Heart and a Silver Star for his actions during World War II, WRAL reports. The fort was previously named after Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general. Then-President Biden's name changes to nine military bases that were previously named after Confederate leaders cost an estimated $6.37 million; it's not clear how much it will cost to change the name of the North Carolina base back to Bragg, WCNC reports.

Feb 10, 2025 11:41 AM CST

Fort Liberty has only been known as such for about 18 months, and if President Trump has his way, its moniker won't live much longer. As NBC News reports, Army officials are considering reverting the military installation's name back to Fort Bragg after it was changed as part of an initiative to remove Confederate names from bases. That's in line with Trump's views: During his first term, he vetoed a bill that was later overridden by Congress seeking to rename Defense Department installations with Confederate links, and during his most recent campaign, he promised to revert back to Fort Bragg.

"We get elected, I'm doing it," he said at a campaign event in October. "We did win two world wars from Fort Bragg, right? So this is not a time to be changing names. We're going to get it back." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also on the record as being opposed to the name changes, which he called "a sham" and "garbage." But in order for Fort Bragg to resurface, Stars and Stripes notes that a 2020 law, which banned the Defense Department from naming any assets after anyone or anything associated with the Confederacy, would have to be struck. Gen. Braxton Bragg was a North Carolinian Confederate leader who also served in the Mexican-American War. (More Fort Bragg stories.)