Donald Trump’s latest patriotic rebrand is already facing serious pushback — from both the White House and veterans’ groups — after he proposed renaming Veterans Day.
The former president took to Truth Social late Thursday to announce his plan, writing: “I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I.”
November 11 has officially been known as Veterans Day since 1954, but that didn’t stop Trump from declaring: “We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything—That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!”
Just 24 hours after Trump's post, the White House was already walking it back.
“We are not renaming Veterans Day,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told ABC News on Friday. “It will just be an additional proclamation that goes out on that day.”
What that “additional proclamation” entails is still unclear. But according to historians and veterans’ groups, renaming Veterans Day would require an act of Congress — not just a Truth Social post from a former president.
Critics say Trump's proposal is disrespectful
Trump’s attempt to rebrand the holiday hasn’t just sparked confusion — it’s angered veterans and critics who argue the move is disrespectful to those who served in conflicts beyond the two World Wars.
“Veterans Day should be an acknowledgment of the ways that fellow Americans have served and sacrificed to protect and defend what we have in America,” said Allison Jaslow, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, speaking to The New York Times. “It is not the veterans’ fault if we don’t win wars.”
Celebrating only World War I and World War II veterans would exclude more than 99% of the 15.8 million living American veterans, according to a 2023 census — including current Vice President J.D. Vance, who served in Iraq.
It would also conveniently skip over Trump himself, who avoided the Vietnam War draft after claiming to have “bone spurs” — a claim his former lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress was fabricated.
“You think I’m stupid? I wasn’t going to Vietnam,” Trump reportedly told Cohen during sworn testimony before the House Oversight Committee in 2019, per CNN.
History — and geography — don't quite back him up
Trump’s suggested date swaps are also drawing scrutiny for being factually wrong.
His proposal to mark May 8 as “Victory Day for World War II” ignores the fact that while that date — known as Victory in Europe Day (V.E. Day) — marked Germany’s surrender, America didn’t end its WWII campaign until August 15, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan to surrender.
As for claiming the U.S. did “more than any other Country, by far” in securing a WWII victory? That’s not exactly going down well overseas.
Russia, for example, honors its colossal wartime losses under the term “Great Patriotic War,” having lost around 9 million troops and 19 million civilians on the Eastern Front. The U.K. also suffered heavy losses during the German Blitz campaign.
Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was blunt in his assessment of the plan, calling Trump “a complete moron.”
A holiday with deeper roots
Veterans Day was first established in 1919 as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I. It was broadened in the 1950s to include all veterans, not just those from the world wars, and officially became a federal holiday in 1968.
It’s a day not just for flags and parades, but for solemn recognition — a reminder of the cost of service, whether a war ends in victory, defeat, or somewhere in between.
But for Trump, who told his followers that “we are going to start celebrating our victories again!”, Veterans Day seems less about remembering service and more about reclaiming some grand narrative of American dominance.
Still, the backlash appears to have forced a retreat. With the administration’s clarification, it seems the renaming of Veterans Day is one “victory” that won’t be happening any time soon.