Trump wants to rename Veterans Day, V-E Day

By Vivian Ho

The Washington Post

President Donald Trump said he will rename Veterans Day as “Victory Day for World War I” as a way for the country to celebrate its military victories.

In a late-night post on Truth Social, Trump said that in addition to the Nov. 11 federal holiday, he was also going to rename May 8, a day widely celebrated as V-E Day, for Victory in Europe Day, as “Victory Day for World War II.” The post was not accompanied by an executive order, and only Congress has the authority to create or change a federal holiday.

“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!” Trump wrote in the post.

Trump said in the same post that the United States “did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II” — a statement that is likely to receive some backlash from U.S. allies that lost millions of military service members, in addition to civilians who died and infrastructure that was destroyed in bombings. The Soviet Union, in particular, is believed to have suffered between 8.8 million and 10.7 million military deaths and 24 million civilian deaths.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump’s announcement.

Veterans Day, which was originally called Armistice Day, is observed as a federal holiday on Nov. 11 each year — the day the armistice ending World War I was signed in 1918. A number of other allied nations, including Britain and France, commemorate the holiday as Remembrance Day.

In the United States, Congress renamed the holiday in 1954 following World War II and the Korean War to broaden the “significance of an existing holiday in order that a grateful nation, on a day dedicated to the cause of world peace, may pay homage to all of its veterans.”

V-E Day, which marks the day the World War II allies formally accepted Germany’s surrender in 1945, is not a federal holiday.

Only Congress has the authority to create, end or rename a federal holiday, said David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University. “This is a power textually committed to Congress,” Schultz said.

Though Trump has bypassed political norms through his executive orders in his first weeks in office, the president ultimately “lacks this authority to create a national holiday,” Schultz said. Presidents can issue proclamations to mark a day of mourning or to celebrate a group or a person, but that proclamation has no binding force in law. “Congress must legislate to create a holiday,” Schultz said.

Schultz also noted that no federal holiday is binding on the 50 states or private businesses.

Veterans Day is not the only federal holiday to catch Trump’s attention recently. He posted on Truth Social on Sunday that he was “bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes,” saying “Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much.”

Columbus Day remains a federally recognized holiday, but at least 14 states and more than 100 localities have moved to call the day Indigenous Peoples’ Day in recognition of the harm that Columbus and his expedition caused for Native Americans.

President Joe Biden became the first president to commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2021.

The last federal holiday created was Juneteenth, the day commemorating the end of slavery in Texas, which Congress approved overwhelmingly in 2021. Biden said signing the legislation into law was “one of the greatest honors” of his presidency.

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