Trump’s plan to rename national holidays ‘Victory Day’ to mark German surrender at end of WWII
Donald Trump announced he will rename two US holidays Victory Day following the EU in marking the anniversary of Germany’s unconditional surrender by Allied Forces at the end of WWII.
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US President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed his intent to rename two US holidays to “Victory Day” in his latest attempt to alter the country’s nomenclature.
“I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Victory Day, observed by the European Union on May 8 and in former Soviet countries on May 9, marks the anniversary of the formal acceptance of Germany’s unconditional surrender by the Allied Forces at the end of World War II.
Though some in the United States mark the occasion, it is not a public holiday or celebrated as widely as in Europe.
“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,” Trump’s post said.
November 11 was originally named “Armistice Day” by former US president Woodrow Wilson to mark the anniversary of 1918 armistice ending the armed conflict in World War I.
It is now a public holiday celebrated in the United States as “Veterans Day” and meant to honour Americans who have served in the US armed forces.
“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!” Trump continued.
“We are going to start celebrating our victories again!”
No executive order or proclamation enumerating the holiday name changes has been formally issued yet by the White House.
Trump in his second term has repeatedly sought to rename parts of US public life, whether it be a national holiday — such as changing “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” back to “Columbus Day” — or a geographical feature, like renaming the “Gulf of Mexico” as the “Gulf of America.”
SECURITY ADVISER REPLACED AFTER GROUP CHAT SCANDAL
Donald Trump has confirmed that he is replacing his national security adviser Mike Waltz following a chat group leak, saying he planned to move him to the United Nations.
In the first major cabinet shake-up of Mr Trump’s new term, the president said Secretary of State Marco Rubio would now also serve as his “interim” national security adviser following Mr Waltz’s departure.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social, confirming earlier reports that Mr Waltz was being ousted.
“Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
There was no immediate confirmation of US media reports that Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, would also leave the National Security Council.
US media had reported that Steve Witkoff, a real estate magnate whom Mr Trump has picked to lead US talks with both Russia and Iran, is in contention to replace Mr Waltz in the longer term.
Mr Waltz had been under pressure since the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic Magazine revealed in March that Mr Waltz had mistakenly added him to a chat on the commercial messaging app Signal about attacks on Houthi rebels.
Officials on the chat laid out the attack plan including the timings that US warplanes would take off to bomb targets in Yemen, with the first texts barely half an hour before they launched.
Despite intense media speculation that Mr Trump would fire Mr Waltz over the scandal, the president repeatedly offered his backing and the national security adviser appeared to have ridden out the storm.
In the end, however, the 51-year-old former congressman from Florida lasted just over 100 days of
Democrats will now turn up the heat on Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was the official who revealed the air strike details in advance, and who was also reported to have shared those details in a separate Signal group chat that included, among others, his spouse.
“Now do Hegseth,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on X. Waltz’s new role will also require Senate confirmation, ensuring that Signalgate will stay in the headlines.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has also faced pressure over the scandal
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TRUMP USE OF DEPORTATIONS LAW ‘UNLAWFUL’: JUDGE
A federal judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s use of an obscure wartime law to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members was “unlawful.”
District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, a Trump appointee, blocked any deportations from his southern Texas district of alleged members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA).
Mr Trump invoked the little known Act, which was last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II, on March 15 and flew two plane loads of alleged TdA members to El Salvador’s notorious maximum security CECOT prison.
The Supreme Court and several district courts have temporarily halted removals under the AEA citing a lack of due process, but Rodriguez is the first federal judge to find that its use is unlawful.
“The president cannot summarily declare that a foreign nation or government has threatened or perpetrated an invasion or predatory incursion of the United States,” the judge said in his 36-page order.
“Allowing the president to unilaterally define the conditions when he may invoke the AEA, and then summarily declare that those conditions exist, would remove all limitations to the executive branch’s authority under the AEA,” Rodriguez said.
“The president’s invocation of the AEA … exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful,” the judge said.
The administration does not have the lawful authority, under the AEA, “to detain Venezuelan aliens, transfer them within the United States, or remove them from the country,” he added.
MEXICO AGREES TO ‘IMPROVE’ TRADE RELATIONS
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that she had spoken with Donald Trump and agreed to work toward improving the trade balance between the two nations.
Ms Sheinbaum, whose country is considered one of the most vulnerable to Mr Trump’s trade war, described her conversation with him as “very positive.”
While President Trump left Mexico off the list of nations facing his steep “reciprocal tariffs,” its carmakers as well as steel and aluminium exporters still face duties.
Ms Sheinbaum says Mr Trump’s tariffs contravene a free-trade agreement between the two countries that also includes Canada.
Mexico replaced China in 2023 as the largest trading partner with the United States, which buys more than 80 per cent of its exports.
IRAN SLAMS NEW US SANCTIONS: ‘ECONOMIC TERRORISM’
A US decision to slap new sanctions on Iran has been slammed as “economic terrorism” by the Islamic republic just days before another round of nuclear talks between the longtime foes.
The United States said on Wednesday it was imposing sanctions on seven companies involved in selling Iranian oil – four based in the United Arab Emirates and one in Turkey.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “So long as Iran attempts to generate oil and petrochemical revenues to fund its destabilising activities, and support its terrorist activities and proxies, the United States will take steps to hold both Iran and all its partners engaged in sanctions evasion accountable.”
In a statement, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the sanctions were part of US efforts “to disrupt friendly and legal relations between developing countries through economic terrorism”.
He said they were “clear evidence of the contradictory approach of American decision-makers and their lack of goodwill and seriousness in advancing the path of diplomacy”.
HARRIS HITS OUT AT TRUMP: ‘SELF-SERVING’ AGENDA
Former US vice president Kamala Harris hit out at Donald Trump and his backers in her first major speech since losing November’s election.
The defeated Democrat told supporters the apparent “chaos” of the last three months was actually the realisation of a long-cherished plan by conservatives who are using Mr Trump to twist the United States to their own advantage.
“What we are, in fact, witnessing is a high velocity event, where a vessel is being used for the swift implementation of an agenda that has been decades in the making,” she told an audience in San Francisco.
“An agenda to slash public education. An agenda to shrink government and then privatise its services. All while giving tax breaks to the wealthiest.
“A narrow, self-serving vision of America where they punish truth-tellers, favour loyalists, cash in on their power, and leave everyone to fend for themselves.”
Ms Harris, who is thought to be mulling a run for the governorship of her home state of California in 2026 or a possible White House run in 2028, has largely stayed out of the limelight since leaving Washington in January.
On Wednesday she was a guest speaker at an event run by Emerge, a political organisation that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for public office.
– with AFP news service
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Originally published as Trump’s plan to rename national holidays ‘Victory Day’ to mark German surrender at end of WWII
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