President Donald Trump announced Thursday his intention to rename Veterans Day — a federal holiday on November 11 for over 70 years — to “Victory Day for World War I.” He also proposed designating May 8 as “Victory Day for World War II”.
“We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, who know how to do so!”
Historians and communication experts have raised alarms over the proposal, warning that reframing the holiday as a celebration of victory risks changing its original purpose and erasing historical elements.
“It’s rewriting history,” said Nicholas Cull, chair of the Master’s Program in Public Diplomacy at USC Annenberg. “The reason we celebrate November 11th as a date for the end of World War I is not as a victory day but rather Armistice Day — the day the guns fell silent by agreement. To turn it into ‘we won, you lost’ is rewriting history.”
Cull said reframing the day could erase its original purpose and diminish its inclusive nature. Veterans Day honors all who served, regardless of the outcome of their conflict.
“The idea of only celebrating the victories will be very offensive to veterans of Korea and Vietnam,” Cull said. “I think this will cause offense and hurt to those who served in wars that were not considered huge wins for America.”
Other scholars echoed this sentiment, warning of deeper consequences. Tom Hollihan, a USC political communication professor, said Trump’s plan is more symbolic than strategic, and unlikely to succeed.
“Whatever pops into [Trump’s] brain, he thinks he can just achieve,” Hollihan said. “But I’m not at all convinced he’ll ever achieve this change. It’s like a lot of other things Trump talks about, but creating a national holiday typically is an act of Congress.”
Hollihan said holidays play a vital role in shaping cultural memory and come with political and financial consequences.
“They cost money, and battles over what gets constituted as a holiday,” he said. “Just proclaiming a new holiday or repurposing an old one may create struggles with unions and employers.”
Even if the proposal doesn’t materialize legislatively, its symbolism could turn away Trump’s veteran supporters.
“There are a lot of Vietnam and Korean veterans, and they’re going to feel disrespected by this,” Hollihan said.
Paul Lerner, a history professor at USC with expertise in both World Wars, criticized the proposal as both historically inaccurate and narrowly nationalistic.
“It’s a very American-centric way of looking at it, and it really oversimplifies things,” Lerner said. “World War II wasn’t over on May 8th. That date only marks victory in Europe. Fighting continued elsewhere.”
As Veterans Day 2025 approaches, scholars doubt anything will change on the calendar. But they remain concerned about what the proposal says about how Americans remember their past.
“The meaning of World War I is that it shouldn’t happen again,” Cull said. “And not everything America has done is remembered. But we have to be careful what we choose to celebrate, and why.”