WASHINGTON >> Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed an order restoring the name of a storied special operations forces base in North Carolina back to Fort Bragg and said Tuesday that there will be more name changes coming.

Speaking to reporters in Germany, Hegseth hinted at a wholesale reversal of the broader Biden administration effort in 2023 to remove names that honored Confederate leaders, including from nine Army bases. It sets up a potentially costly, complicated and delicate process that could run afoul of the law.

“As the president has said, and I’ve said as well, we’re not done there,” Hegseth said Tuesday when asked about the decision to revert the base name from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, but changing the service member it commemorates. “I never called it Fort Liberty because it wasn’t Fort Liberty. It’s Fort Bragg.”

Hegseth said the original name is a legacy for troops who lived and served there and that it was a shame to change it. He said he deliberately referred to Bragg and Fort Benning — the Army base in Columbus, Georgia, which is now called Fort Moore — as he entered the Pentagon on his first day.

“There are other bases that have been renamed that erodes that very same legacy,” he said. “There’s a reason I said Bragg and Benning when I walked into the Pentagon on day one. But it’s not just Bragg and Benning. There are a lot of other service members that have connections. And we’re going to do our best to restore it.”

The North Carolina base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023. Its original namesake, Gen. Braxton Bragg, was a Confederate general from Warrenton, North Carolina, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles, contributing to the Confederacy’s downfall.

Hegseth is renaming the base to honor Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, who the Army said was a World War II hero who earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart for exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.

The choice of the World War II private first class got around a law prohibiting the military from naming a base after a Confederate leader. It sets up the potential for the Defense Department to do the same for the other eight Army bases that were renamed — searching through massive military records for service members with the same last names who could be cited to revert to the former names.

Hegseth’s action drew some opposition from Congress. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., called it a “cynical maneuver” that violates the spirit of the law and reflects President Donald Trump’s “obsession with fighting culture wars” instead of supporting troops and their families.

“Worse, he has insulted the Gold Star families who proudly supported Fort Liberty’s name, and he has dishonored himself by associating Private Bragg’s good name with a Confederate traitor,” said Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a statement.