President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that he would rename Veterans Day while speaking at a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
“As you know, today is not only Veterans Day, but it is my proclamation that we are now going to say and call Victory Day for World War I,” Trump said.
The president said he was recently at an event and saw that European countries were celebrating Victory Day, but the United States was not.
“I saw that France was celebrating another Victory Day in World War II, and other countries were celebrating,” Trump rambled. “Everyone was celebrating. We are the ones who win wars.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, on Nov. 11, 2025. / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Moments later, the president continued to observe other countries observing the holiday with that name.
“I saw it. I saw the United Kingdom. I saw Russia. They were celebrating Victory Day in World War II, and I said ‘we’ve got to have a Victory Day.'” “Nobody even talked about it in our country,” Trump said.
“From now on we are going to celebrate Victory Day for World War I, World War II and, frankly, everything else,” he declared.
President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance salute during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Amphitheater to mark Veterans Day on November 11, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. / Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) is a holiday celebrated on May 8 that marks the end of World War II in Europe when Nazi Germany surrendered.
Russian Victory Day, May 9, is an annual holiday commemorating the Soviet Union’s victory over Germany in World War II.
European countries mark the end of World War I with Armistice Day on November 11. The date is marked in the US as Veterans Day and in Commonwealth countries as Remembrance Day.
Tuesday was not the first time Trump indicated he wanted to change the name of Veterans Day. He also mentioned it in a Truth Social post on May 1.
“I hereby rename May 8 as Victory Day for World War II and November 11 as Victory Day for World War I,” Trump wrote. “We won both wars, no one came close to us in terms of strength, bravery or military brilliance, but we never celebrated anything.”
American troops look toward the fighting already taking place in front of them as they approach the French coast during the massive D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. / Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images
On Tuesday, the president renewed his call to call Victory Day for World War I and World War II.
“And we could use many other wars, but we’ll start with those two,” Trump said. “Maybe someday someone else will add a couple more because we won a lot of good ones.”
The United States first marked November 11 as Armistice Day with a proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. It was formally recognized to commemorate the end of World War I with a 1926 resolution and became a legal holiday in 1938.
In 1954, the holiday was renamed to honor all American veterans with Veterans Day. The change was enacted by President Dwight Eisenhower, who issued the first Veterans Day Proclamation that fall.
American troops take shelter in a ditch in St. Sauveur-le-Vicomte as they respond to enemy fire during the Battle of Normandy / Corbis via Getty Images
During his remarks Tuesday, the president praised American service members, but also praised the work of his administration, including its decision to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.
“Remember, we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything else. We won everything that came before,” Trump said. “And then we brilliantly decided to change the name of this great thing that we all created together, and we became politically correct. We don’t like to be politically correct.”
While the president and his team now call it the Department of War, the name was changed to the Department of Defense after World War II by an act of Congress.
Before delivering his speech, Trump and Vice President JD Vance participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
President Donald Trump participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Nov. 11, 2025. / Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The president has been accused of privately disparaging veterans and their service, but he has vehemently denied this.
The Atlantic published an explosive report in September 2020 that said Trump canceled his visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018, in part because he didn’t believe it was important to honor murdered Americans and reportedly called those buried there “losers” and “suckers” for being murdered.
The White House chief of staff during his first term, former Marine General John Kelly, confirmed the reports last year.