Trump Says He'll Rename Veterans Day

President Trump says he is renaming Veterans Day to celebrate victory—and he's giving Victory in Europe Day a new name as well. "Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II," he said in a Truth Social post. "I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I again!"

• Politico calls the push to rename Veterans Day "surprising." It was originally Armistice Day, marking the last day of WWI, but was broadened in the 1950s to include American veterans of other wars, including WWII.
• CNN reports that, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress passed a law in 1938 declaring November 11 a day to be dedicated to WWI veterans and "the cause of world peace."

"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!" The BBC reports that Trump's remarks are likely to anger Russia, which marks its victory in World War II, which it calls the Great Patriotic War, on May 9. When Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945, the date marked as V-E Day elsewhere, it was already May 9 on Moscow time. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people, including almost 9 million troops, in the war.

Unlike Veterans Day, May 8 isn't a federal holiday and Trump didn't say whether he plans to make it one, which would require an act of Congress. Critics were quick to point out that despite Trump's proposed name change, the date doesn't mark American victory in WWII, which came months later, when Japan surrendered after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "We won World War II on August 15, 1945 when the Japanese surrendered," Keith Olbermann said in a post on X. "Trump is a complete moron." That date is marked as V-J Day in countries including the UK and Australia, though historians say the official end of the war was September 2, 1945, when Japan signed surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, CNN reports. (More Veterans Day stories.)