Senate Armed Services Chair Jim Inhofe is vowing to yank a provision from defense policy legislation that would remove the names of Confederate leaders from Army bases, an uphill political battle after the House and Senate adopted bills with similar provisions this week by wide margins.
President Donald Trump — who opposes removing the names from bases and has threatened to veto a version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act that would do so — talked up the fight on Twitter on Friday, saying Inhofe (R-Okla.) told him base names won't be changed.
"I spoke to highly respected (Chairman) Senator @JimInhofe, who has informed me that he WILL NOT be changing the names of our great Military Bases and Forts, places from which we won two World Wars (and more!). Like me, Jim is not a believer in 'Cancel Culture,'" Trump tweeted.
Inhofe, a reliable Trump ally, made the vow to fight the provision during an interview with The Oklahoman. Inhofe told the home state newspaper that he spoke to the president Thursday about the effort and predicted that it would be removed from a compromise defense bill, without specifying how.
"We’re going to see to it that provision doesn’t survive the bill," Inhofe told the Oklahoman. "I’m not going to say how at this point."
Inhofe's spokesperson, Leacy Burke, added that Trump's tweet about his conversation with Inhofe "speaks for itself."
White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said she will "leave that to Sen. Inhofe" as to how he would remove the provision.
"But the president was assured by Sen. Inhofe that that would be changing, and that Republicans stood with the president on this and stood with the rest of America," she said.
McEnany cited an ABC News/Ipsos poll that found 56 percent of respondents were opposed to changing the names. "The bases are not known for the generals they're named after. The bases are known for the heroes within it," she said.
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