Hegseth says renaming military bases after Civil War soldiers who fought for slavery is ‘important for morale'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted Wednesday that military veterans and active-duty troops urged the Trump administration to rename American military bases after Confederate traitors who took up arms against the government to defend the enslavement of Black people — a move the secretary claims is 'important for morale.'
In his testimony to the Senate Armed Services committee, Hegseth defended the president's decision to restore the names of several military bases in the South that were first named in honor of Confederate generals, despite Congress mandating their removal five years ago.
'It's something we've been proud to do, something that's important for the morale of the Army, and those communities appreciate that we've returned it back to what it was instead of playing this game of erasing names,' Hegseth said.
Donald Trump is restoring the previous base names — including Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort AP Hill and Fort Lee — but claims to be finding military veterans and officials of distinction who share the same last names as the original Confederate honorees.
Maine Sen. Angus King said he was 'somewhat puzzled' by the president's recent announcement to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina — which was renamed Fort Liberty under Joe Biden — that his administration was restoring the names of several bases, including Virginia's Fort Lee, which was initially named after Gen. Robert E. Lee before it was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in 2023.
Lee is the 'classic definition of a traitor,' King said.
'Why are you going through these incredible gymnastics, finding current soldiers or other soldiers to rename — and you slipped a minute ago, you said we're returning these bases to their original names,' King said.
'Why are you doing this? I don't understand what the motivation is to rename bases for people who took up arms against their country on behalf of slavery,' he added. 'What possible motivation could there be for this? Who is telling you to do this? Who is urging you to do this?'
Hegseth said veterans and service members deployed from those bases share a 'legacy' and a 'connection' to the names.
'Thankfully, because so many men and women in this country have served, there's a Benning and a Bragg and a Pickett and a Hood that has a silver star or medal of honor that we can rename the bases to,' he added.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, disputed Hegseth's claim that veterans like her who were deployed from those bases have asked for the names to be returned.
Duckworth, a former helicopter pilot who lost both her legs after her Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, served Alabama's Fort Rucker, named after confederate officer Edmund Rucker. The name was changed to honor Medal of Honor recipient Michael J. Novosel in 2023.
'I'd rather be associated with Mike Novosel than a failed confederate traitor,' Duckworth said.
Senators also rejected Hegseth's claim that changing the base names is 'erasing history.'
'We're recognizing history, and recognizing mistakes have been made in this country,' King said. 'The greatest of all was a civil war.'
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia asked Hegseth how the family of Arthur Gregg — the first African American in the U.S. Army to reach the rank of lieutenant general — reacted to news that the military base honoring his name would be reverted to Fort Lee.
'You didn't call any of the families,' Kaine said. 'The families were called by the press. That's how they learned about this.'
He asked that Hegseth not issue any orders to change the names of those bases to continue to recognize 'exemplary patriots' like Gregg. The secretary said notices to the bases will be delivered 'soon.'
'We very much thank and appreciate them, and we'll find ways to recognize them, but the orders will soon be going to those bases to change the names back to the original name that should have never been changed,' Hegseth said.

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The Independent

16 minutes ago

• The Independent

Has Iran actually tried to kill Trump? Here's what we know

Days after it was reported that Donald Trump rejected Israel's plot to assassinate Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the president publicly announced that the United States knows his location and is holding off killing him 'for now.' Israeli officials, meanwhile, have openly demanded his death. This week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei 'can no longer be allowed to exist.' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, turning to Fox News over the weekend to make the case for the United States to join a war with Iran, said Khamenei sees the president as 'public enemy number one.' Israel has sought to justify intervention using allegations of Trump's assassination threats as leverage, while the United States has faced years of blowback in the wake of Middle East wars and the 2020 killing of a top Iranian general. During his first administration in 2020, Trump ordered a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, after he had survived several assassination attempts from western, Israeli and Arab states over the past two decades. The strike, which was planned over several months, ignited fierce blowback across the region, denounced by Iran's foreign minister at the time as an act of international terrorism. By 2024, U.S. intelligence officials had collected evidence they believe shows Tehran was seeking ways to kill then-candidate Trump, according to Politico. In September, Trump claimed there were 'big threats on my life by Iran.' Neither of the two assassination attempts against then-candidate Trump in the summer of 2024 have been linked to Iran. One month earlier, a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran was accused of seeking to carry out a murder-for-hire plot targeting U.S. government officials, according to federal prosecutors. Asif Raza Merchant was accused of joining a complex plot to carry out assassinations last year, including trying to hire hit men who were undercover officers, according to an indictment. In November, a fugitive Iranian government operative was accused of hiring a pair of New Yorkers he met in prison to carry out an assassination plot against a critic of the regime. He allegedly admitted to FBI agents that he'd also been tasked with finding a hit squad to kill then-President-elect Trump. Farhad Shakeri claimed he was asked by regime officials to 'put aside his other efforts... and focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating' Trump, according to a criminal complaint in Manhattan federal court. In February, Trump, who campaigned against U.S. involvement in foreign wars, said Iran would be 'obliterated' if he was assassinated by state actors. 'That would be a terrible thing for them to do,' he told reporters. 'Not because of me. If they did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end. I've left instructions: if they do it, they get obliterated. There won't be anything left.' Iran has denied ever targeting the president. 'A new scenario is fabricated,' Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X following accusations against Shakeri. 'The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the president of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect,' Araghchi wrote. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the allegations were part of a 'repulsive' plot by Israel to 'complicate matters between America and Iran.' In January, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed that Iran 'never attempted' to kill Trump, 'and we never will.' 'This is another one of those schemes that Israel and other countries are designing to promote Iranophobia,' Pezeshkian told NBC News. 'Iran has never attempted to, nor does it plan to assassinate anyone. At least as far as I know.' Asked whether there have been any plots against the president under Iran, he insisted there have been 'none whatsoever.' On June 15, Netanyahu asked Fox News host Bret Baier whether 'these people who chant 'death to America'' and 'tried to assassinate President Trump twice' should 'have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to your cities.' Baier then pressed Netanyahu about his claim that Iran launched two assassination attempts. 'Through proxies, yes.' he said. 'Through, through their intel, yes, they want to kill him,' he added. 'He's enemy number one.' Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has emerged as a prominent voice across right-wing media against the United States joining Israel's war, told Texas Senator Ted Cruz that the United States would be bombing Tehran if those assassination allegations were credible. 'We should attack Iran immediately if that's true,' he said. Cruz insisted that 'nobody disputes' Iran is trying to kill the president, calling it an 'objective fact' following his interview with Carlson. On Thursday, Trump said he plans to decide on whether to order U.S. warplanes to strike Iranian nuclear facilities within the next two weeks, depending on whether Tehran engages in talks over ending their nuclear weapons program. In a statement relayed through White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump said: 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.' The president's statement followed a week of escalating strikes between Israel and Iran. More than 600 Iranians and at least two dozen Iranians have been killed, according to officials.

Daily Mail​

23 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE John Fetterman slams 'twisted martyr' Luigi Mangione after he brags about his $1M legal fund

Outspoken Senator John Fetterman has blasted accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione and his legion of supporters who have now handed their 'folk hero assassin' an astonishing $1million for his defense. Mangione revealed the staggering amount in a self-reflective list of 27 things he's 'grateful for' to mark his birthday of the same number inside the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. Fetterman, a long-standing critic of the Mangione support cult, told exclusively in a reaction to the figure: 'Spoiler… to those who exalt, donate and defend their twist martyr, that cowardly a**hole will die in prison.' Mangione was arrested in Fetterman's home state Pennsylvania after five days on the run following the shooting death of healthcare boss Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street. The senator is one of many who believe Mangione's list was widely circulated to his army of devotees – who view him as a romanticized folk hero for his alleged slaying of the UnitedHealthcare CEO on December 4, 2024 – as a way to garner sympathy as the legal clock ticks. Millionaire Mangione references his large bounty in item 13 on his list of the '27 things I am grateful for'. It reads: 'The some 30,000 individuals around the globe who have come together to donate over $1,000,000 to my legal fund, enabling me to retain a world class defense team across three concurrent prosecutions.' Mangione allegedly shot Thompson in the back on a Manhattan sidewalk as he arrived for an investors meeting. The now 27-year-old was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an anonymous 911 call describing a 'suspicious man' resembling the suspect. According to a manifesto on him when seized, he was critical of the state of healthcare in the United States. The alleged killer, who was born into a wealthy and prominent family in Baltimore, Maryland, painted a rough canvas of his daily 'birdcage' incarceration in the 27-point list which also appears to revel in his 'celebrity' status. He mailed it out from the jail on June 6. Mangione, who is pleading not guilty to federal and state murder charges, gushes surprising praise toward staff at the jail, currently also housing rap mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs during his sex-trafficking trial. He also gets political, dubbing America as 'sick' and praising both conservatives and liberals alike while calling free speech 'the basis of our way of life'. Mangione additionally reveals his supporters are deluging him with their own stories of everyday travails and adversity in an effort to boost him as he awaits a December 5 hearing to set his federal trial date. It appears money for goodies inside is not a problem, with him revealing he's being bombarded with top-ups for his commissary account to buy essentials and treats – and disclosing what he likes to eat. But Mangione's first thoughts are reserved for those closest to him. Leading his list of gratitude is a heartfelt nod to his inner circle: 'My friends, for being there when I needed it most,' he writes in thought number one. He is grateful for his family, yet curtly, and confusingly, considering his appeals for sympathy – informing his followers 'my personal life is none of your business!' And he praises 'the many talented and generous individuals who – if not for my current predicament – I would never have crossed paths with'. The accused assassin, who has a cushy job in jail cleaning showers, claims he suffers Groundhog Day symptoms as a result of others' kindness. Reasons to be grateful number four says: 'Letters. I spend each day between the same four walls of my unit, where I receive both holiday cards sent in December and birthday cards sent between March and May, creating a bizarre and disorienting Groundhog Day scenario where every day is both Christmas and my May 6th birthday. 'Nonetheless, I am incredibly grateful. The monotony of my physical environment is offset by the variety and richness of the lives I experience through letters: multi-page life stories, retellings of workplace conversations, stream of consciousness journal entries. 'Admissions of greatest fears, eager recaps of recent triumphs, mothers reliving senseless tragedies. Soulful creations, generous offers, advice.' Aside from his defense fund, he is also receiving money to make life easier inside the federal lock-up. Item 17 reads: 'Everyone who has donated to my commissary account, whose contributions have funded a tablet, songs, stamps, hygiene items, bbq sauce, Goya sazon, peanut butter and lot of tuna packets.' His tastes inside also extend to 'Chicken Thursdays and Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce'. Aside from food, the University of Pennsylvania alumni admitted he cannot wade through all the 'countless books I've been sent' but he's 'distributed these books to my grateful inmates'. 'While I've never read the vast majority of them, I've loved facilitating this collective practice in tsundoko', he continues, referring to a Japanese word meaning acquiring books but letting them pile up without reading them. Reason number 17 was a direct shout out to his fans whose donations to his prison commissary account allowed him to purchase Barbeque sauce, Sazon seasoning packets and even a tablet He also gives a fascinating insight into his own taste in literature. In a nod to the shadow of the charges facing him, he gives a thumbs up to two dystopian works involving rebellion against the system. 'My favorites include Ayn Rand's Anthem, Patrick Bet-David's Your Next Five Moves and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451,' he writes. Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella published in 1938 with the plot taking place at an unspecified future date when mankind is entering an age where individuality is eliminated. In it, a young man known as Equality 7-2521 rebels by doing secret scientific research. Fahrenheit 451 is another dark work, this time depicting an America where books are outlawed. It follows a man who rebels against his role as a fireman who burns books, quits his job and commits to preserving literature. Meanwhile, Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy is a complete shift of gears, charting strategies for life and business – stating that the first move is understanding your own strengths and weaknesses. Mangione is grateful for 'being born in America', yet he adds: 'She is haunted by her past, she is sick, she is plagued by inner turmoil – such is her nature as a nation of individuals. 'She is young, in midst of an adolescent identity crisis. But despite her flaws, her frame is robust and her potential unmatched.' Mangione's gratitude further includes 'free speech, the basis of our way of life'. He adds: 'When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say' – George.' The quote is from A Clash of Kings, a fantasy novel by George RR Martin. Politically, Mangione strikes a seemingly even-handed tone. In items 23 and 24, he writes: 'The conservatives, who fiercely conserve the aspects of our society that make us great.' 'The liberals, who liberate us from the outdated aspects of our society that prevent us from being greater.' Meanwhile, he heaps praise on one man who has been helping him negotiate jail life. 'My cellmate J, who – despite spending half of every day inside a shared birdcage and being sentenced to a decade away from his six kids who he loved – tolerates the clutter of all my papers, shares his unique wisdom and doesn't hesitate to humble me when I need it.' Of the jail itself, he writes in thought number 10: 'The MDC staff and CO's (corrections officers), who are nothing like what The Shawshank Redemption or The Stanford Prison Experiment had me to believe. 'While the occasional minor dissent arises, I've found that they are people too and largely there to help.' Mangione's job cleaning showers was revealed by short-term cellmate Michael Daddea, who spent two weeks at MDC. In a now deleted video on X, he said he found Mangione welcoming, saying: 'Luigi is standing there and he's like, 'Hey, how's it going?' Like, super nice. Introduced himself to me first thing,' he said. Daddea, accused of 3D-printing at least 25 untraceable 'ghost guns' similar to the weapon allegedly used to kill Thompson, added Mangione was a 'collie'. 'So, a collie could be like a unit boss that tells you what cell you're going to. Luigi just happened to be a collie that cleans the showers,' he said. Daddea was arrested at his parents' house at Weeki Wachee, about 60 miles north of Tampa, Florida, and transferred to New York before being released on $250,000 bail. He was reluctant to talk further about Mangione when spoke with him at the single-family rural home. He said his attorney had advised him to take down the X posting about the alleged killer – and he told us he was fighting the accusations against him.

NBC News

40 minutes ago

• NBC News

What could happen if Trump does decide to bomb Iran's main nuclear site

If President Donald Trump does decide to use the United States' largest conventional bomb to destroy Iran's fortresslike Fordo nuclear enrichment facility, the colossal force of the explosion would likely cause casualties among workers or anyone else still at the site. But it would not trigger a nuclear explosion or a widespread radiological or chemical spill, according to former nuclear officials and experts. Sitting to the south of Iran's capital, Tehran, the Fordo plant is used to enrich uranium for the production of nuclear energy or, potentially, a bomb. But although this uranium and its chemical byproducts can be harmful to ingest or touch without protective equipment — they won't create a wider blast or regional contamination, analysts say. That would only be the case if Fordo housed nuclear reactors or warheads, which international watchdogs and experts say is not the case. 'If you're down there and it gets bombed, you're stuffed,' Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the ex-commanding officer of the British military's Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, told NBC News on Thursday. 'But that's because this is a 2,500-kilogram (about 5,500-pound) warhead we are talking about here,' he said, referring to the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (or MOP), the largest non-nuclear bomb in the world, which only the U.S. has. Less of a bunker-buster and more of a mountain-buster, this is perhaps the only conventional ordnance in the world that could do the job if Trump did decide to bomb Fordo. 'But if anyone thinks this would be like Chernobyl — absolutely not,' de Bretton-Gordon said. 'Blowing up uranium will not create a nuclear explosion; that is a very complex piece of science, which is why it's so bloody difficult to make nuclear bombs.' There is also little chance of a wider radiation leak or spill impacting the surrounding area, according to Mark Nelson, founder and managing director of Radiant Energy Group, a research consultancy based in Chicago. That's because 'the nuclear substances at Fordo are only very weakly radioactive,' he said. Were this a nuclear plant or missile site, there could be 'fission products' — the stuff uranium breaks down into during a nuclear reaction — which can cause a wider catastrophe. Scrutiny has nonetheless sharpened on Fordo as Trump deliberates whether to join Israel's attacks on Iran. Iran's most advanced enrichment facility, Fordo was refining uranium to 60%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. That's far more than the 3-5% needed for power plants — and far closer to the 90% required to build a warhead. Until 2018, Iran had been complying with a landmark deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that offered Tehran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for agreeing to curb its nuclear program. The agreement was sealed by President Barack Obama in July 2015, along with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom — as well as Germany and the European Union. Most independent observers said it was successfully limiting Iran's nuclear program. That effectively collapsed when Trump walked away from the pact three years later. Iran had been back in talks with Trump when Israel started bombing last week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had no choice because Iran was racing toward building a bomb, something the International Atomic Energy Agency says it has not been able to confirm. The watchdog has been nonetheless concerned about Fordo, where uranium's naturally mined form is turned into a gas and spun at high speed inside centrifuges. That separates its heavier isotope, uranium-238, from the lighter uranium-235 that can be used for civilian purposes or otherwise. Iran says Fordo was designed to hold 3,000 of these centrifuges, a 'size and configuration' that is 'inconsistent with a peaceful program,' Obama said in 2009. Observers such as de Bretton-Gordon say the U.S.'s enormous MOP bomb might be powerful enough not only to destroy this facility but effectively incase it under the collapsed mountain. That could produce a similar effect to the sarcophagus built around Chernobyl after the disaster in 1986, Bretton-Gordon said. Whereas Chernobyl's protective enclosure is 40 feet thick, 'at Fordo we would be talking about a sarcophagus 200-feet thick,' de Bretton-Gordon said. That's not to say the risk of contamination would be zero. If the uranium gas is released, it would partly decompose into hydrofluoric acid, a deadly substance that causes deep-tissue burns if touched without protective gear, and potentially fatal problems for the heart, lungs and nervous system if inhaled. 'It's a nasty chemical to be around without correct safety equipment and procedures,' said Nelson at the Radiant Energy Group. Any blast survivors, or rescuers without the necessary safety equipment, would face 'extremely severe' consequences, he said, but caveated that 'you have to be really close and really unprotected.' There is also a chance that radioactive material could seep into any water source that's running through the mountain. But the likely radioactive levels would be low — detectable rather than harmful — both Nelson and de Bretton-Gordon said. Ultimately, Nelson agreed, all of these risks pale in comparison with the threat posed by the MOP bomb itself, whose payload is upward of 5,500 pounds and weighs a total of 30,000 pounds. 'The danger at the seaside of saltwater ingestion is real — even a few liters could kill you,' he analogized. 'This danger, however, is relatively small compared to drowning.'