National digital journalist
President Donald Trump has always understood the power of branding. As a famous businessman, he put his name on the facades of his skyscrapers and licensed his name on a number of products, from hotel to wine.
Now he is trying to campaign to brand more: America herself.
On the first day, he signed an order to rename the Bay of Mexican Bay of Mexican Bay. Denali, an indigenous name for the famous Alaskan peak, will return back to Mount McKinley, a reference to the killed 19th century president.
Fort Bragg, who was named after the Confederate General until the army changed him to Fort Liberty, will again endure his original name – but this time attached to a far less controversial Soldiers from World War II.
Trump is not the first US president to rename the monument. Barack Obama, Democrat, who renamed Mount McKinley on his own behalf of the Indians, Denali, after years of lobbying from the Alaskans.
George W Bush, a Republican, renamed the Caribbean National Forest in the Puerto Rico Community in the National Forest of El Yunque in 2007, in order to reflect the legacy of US territory.
And after The murder of George Floyd 2020 He encouraged a national account of race, Congress initiated the process of renaming American military bases named after confederation figures. In 2023, during the Presidency of Joe Biden, the Ministry of Defense renamed nine US military bases, including Fort Bragg.
At the center of these decisions is the desire to show America and its values in a particular light.
“The act of appointment is the way the presidents can reshape their vision of the nation,” said Allison Prasch, a professor at Wisconsin-Madison University who studies political rhetoric.
Trump’s choices in their second term send a clear message about his priorities, she said.
“It’s a high -nationalist, imperialist vision of the United States,” said Ms. Prasch.
Some of Trump’s elections are the names of the return calls of the American expansionist age, when the prevailing ideology said that America had a mission that was God forbid from the shore to the shore.
Part of the heritage of President William McKinley was his role in the annexation of Port Rain, Guam, Philippines and Hawaii. By changing Denali’s name, Trump said he wanted to honor McKinley because he was “very enriching our country with tariffs and talent.”
It is an ideology that also informs Trump today, because it was also floating with the idea of returning the Panama Channel again, which was once under surveillance of USA, buying Greenland and annexation of Canada to become “51.”
Meanwhile, the renaming of Fort Bragg is the last in a continuous discussion of the inheritance of the Confederation -the Coalition of the Southern States, which has been separated from now because of the issue of slavery and launched a civil war.
During Trump’s first administration, in the midst of a national account of racial injustice, the Congress demanded from Pentagon to rename the plants named after the confederates and forbade her future military plants to be named after them.
At that time, the move ranked Trump, who tried Veto to measure and stated that “our history as the greatest nation in the world will not be threatened!” The Congress overcame him with two -sided support.
However, historian Connor Williams, who served on the renaming committee, who recommended that the name Bragg would be removed in 2021, said honoring the Confederation was wrong.
“What makes Confederates so bad the topics for commemoration is that they have very few to buy them,” Williams said. “They have committed betrayal against the United States.”
“What we mark, what we celebrate, what public views we make, where we set wreaths – the president has this ability to signal what he thinks is important,” he added.
In 2023, the Biden Administration changed Fort Bragg, named after the Confederate General Braxton Bragg, in Fort Liberty.
“We took this opportunity to improve ourselves and seek excellence,” said Lieutenant Christopher Donahue at the renaming ceremony. “This is what we have always done and we will always do.”
However, the change of name encouraged mixed feelings among the legislators, the former military staff who spent time there and the local community.
“I understand the explanation behind the change and I have to accept it because this has established the chosen leadership in the best interests,” said Cumberland Jimmy Keefe Commissioner at the time. According to local media. “But I hate that so many people who have had positive experiences at Fort Bragg, who are born there, there, weddings there that they will no longer have that Fort Bragg name.”
This week, Trump’s new Minister of Defense Peta Hegsetth returned the name of the base to Fort Bragg. But this time, he said that the base would be appointed by the private first class Roland Bragg, who fought in World War II, not a general general.
“That’s right,” Hegsetth said. “Bragg returned.”
Republican lawmakers representing the base expressed their enthusiasm for change.
“The renamed Fort Bragg for PFC. Roland L. Bragg, who earned Silver Star and Purple Heart in World War II, has always been the right decision,” wrote northern Caroline Ted Budd on Facebook.
But at the national level, many Trump name changes have proven to be controversial. The Marquette University of Marquette showed that 71% of adults in the US did not support the change of the name of the Mexican Bay, and only 29% supported it.
Some of the changes have caused discussions whose vision of American history should officially stand.
Alaska survey survey survey suggested that 47% of Trump’s voters have favored the name change. But overall, the Alaskans opposed the change of names with the margin of two to one, reported Juneau Express.
Democrats and Republicans gathered in the legislation of Alaska to bring a resolution by persuading Trump not to change Denali’s name.
“To officially change the name not only to separate those who fought for the protection of Denali’s legacy, but also rejected the voices of the native communities whose roots were intertwined with this country,” said Alaska Dibert, Democrat and a member of the indigenous Koyukon Athabascan community.
Time will tell if Trump’s symbolic name will endure. But arguments do not show signs of giving up on them.
This week, the White House was blocked this week by the Associated Press journalist from the oval office, as the wire service held the Gulf of Mexico in its popular guide style. Julie Pace’s executive editor called the decision “alarming” and said she had violated the rights of the Constitution in the Constitution.
In the meantime, Google – now using the US Bay on his carats for US users – began to erase negative criticisms of name change.
The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico can only be the country (or water) on paper only on paper, but its symbolism is undeniable, said Ms. Prasch, a professor of political rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin.
And it goes beyond geography to hit the chord on how the Earth looks at itself – and its history.
“I actually think this is much more than renaming the water body on the map,” she said. “It’s basically a rhetorical decision on how we think about the story of the nation.”
