At Fort Bragg, Trump Vows to 'Liberate' LA

President Trump called protesters in Los Angeles "animals" and "a foreign enemy" in a speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday as he defended deploying the military on demonstrators opposed to his immigration enforcement raids and vowed to "liberate" the city.

• Trump, in his most aggressive language yet regarding the protests, used a speech ostensibly supposed to be used to recognize the 250th anniversary of the US Army to denounce the protesters while repeating his false statements about the 2020 election being rigged and attacking the previous commander in chief, former President Joe Biden, the AP reports. "We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That's what they are," Trump said.

• The president called Los Angeles "a trash heap" with "entire neighborhoods under control" of criminals and said the federal government would "use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order." "We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again," Trump said.
• The Guardian reports that Trump repeated conspiracy theories about the protests, claiming that pallets of bricks had been left out for protesters to throw at police and that California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had "paid troublemakers, agitators, and insurrectionists."
• Trump also announced his administration was restoring the names of seven military bases that were given the monikers of Confederate leaders until the names were changed by the Biden administration. Fort Pickett, Fort Robert E. Lee and Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Gordon in Georgia, Fort Rucker in Alabama, and Fort Polk in Louisiana will have their names changed back, Trump said.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has already brought back the names of Fort Bragg and Fort Benning in Georgia. "Can you believe they changed that name in the last administration for a little bit?" Trump said. "We'll forget all about that."

• As they did when they changed back Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, defense officials announced Tuesday that they had identified service members with the same last names in order to make the change and not have the bases officially carry Confederate-related names. The Army said Fort Lee in Virginia, which was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in 2023, would be renamed after Private Fitz Lee, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War, reports Reuters.
• Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll were also at Tuesday's event, along with service members, veterans and their families. Hegseth told the crowd that the US is "restoring the warrior ethos" to its armed forces. "We're not a college or a university. We're not interested in your woke garbage and political correctness," Hegseth said, drawing cheers.
  

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