General
As Trump Overhauls the Military, Fort Bragg and Its Neighbors Brace for Change
The fortunes of Fayetteville, N.C., are tied to the nearby Army base. What should the city expect with the Trump administration firing top leaders and planning budget cuts?
When Marvin Samuels, a veteran who served more than 20 years in the Army, recently opened a restaurant in Fayetteville, N.C., he chose a special name: Liberty Island Foods.
It was an homage, he said, to the nearby military base, Fort Liberty, where he had served for several years. The base had been known as Fort Bragg, named after a Confederate general who owned enslaved people. Then in 2023, the Defense Department renamed it.
But several weeks after Mr. Samuels’s restaurant opened in January, the new Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced a reversal — back to Fort Bragg, this time named after an enlisted Army soldier named Roland L. Bragg, who fought in World War II.
Mr. Samuels shrugged it off. But the change did leave him wondering: How else would the new administration’s orders affect this city, which is so deeply intertwined with the military?
Since returning to office, President Trump has sought to overhaul the Pentagon, starting with his choice of leader, Mr. Hegseth, a veteran, a former Fox News host and a vocal Trump loyalist. Mr. Hegseth has ordered Defense Department officials to draw up plans to cut 8 percent from the defense budget over each of the next five years. And he has slashed D.E.I. initiatives and barred transgender troops from serving.
