Veterans Day should be renamed, according to Donald Trump, who said that Americans need “to start celebrating our victories again.”
Posting late Thursday night on Truth Social, Trump revealed he would rename Veterans Day as “Victory Day for World War I,” claiming it’s time the U.S. started “celebrating our victories again.”
“We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything,” Trump wrote. “That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!”
As if one change wasn’t enough, Trump also declared he would rename Victory in Europe Day — typically marked on May 8 to honor the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany — to “Victory in World War II Day.”
“We did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” Trump says, claiming that this adjustment is all about correcting the record.
Politico claims that although the former president’s remarks are likely to strike a chord with his most devoted supporters, many are baffled by the renaming of Veterans Day in particular.
In the 1950s, the holiday was broadened to recognize veterans of all U.S. conflicts, including World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was first created in 1919 as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I.
After being proclaimed a federal holiday in 1968, Veterans Day has grown into a somber occasion honoring generations of American service members.
Although it is often known as Victory in Europe Day, May 8, the date that marked the conclusion of World War II combat in Europe, is not even an official holiday in the US.
But the U.S. didn’t formally finish the war until September 1945, a few months later, after Japan surrendered after the U.S. detonated atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What about Trump’s assertion that America “did more than any other country” to win World War II? That might lead to strong international opposition, especially from Russia.
The nation honors its WWII endeavor as the “Great Patriotic War,” emphasizing the Soviet Union’s tragic losses: around 9 million soldiers and 19 million civilians perished on the Eastern Front.
Germany’s Blitz bombing campaign, meanwhile, caused enormous harm to the United Kingdom.
