The military was a prime theme as Republican former president Donald Trump filled the 4,500-capacity Crown Arena in Fayetteville — home to America’s largest Army base by population — during a town hall session for his presidential campaign.
Trump visited the All-America city on Friday in his effort to fend off Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the election’s North Carolina battleground. U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida moderated.
Right off the bat, Trump promised his fans: He will change Fort Liberty’s name back to Fort Bragg. He said the name was the first thing he was asked about when he walked in.
“Should we change the name from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg? First question. Right?” he said.
The crowd cheered.
“So here’s what we do: We get elected, I’m doing it. I’m doing it,” Trump said.
Veterans, military pay, vaccinations
During the course of the roughly hour-long town hall, Trump answered questions from a handful of voters, drawing frequent applause and cheers from an enraptured audience with his responses. Throughout the evening, a large focus in speaker remarks and the town hall portion of the event remained on military and veterans’ issues. Some of the discussion included:
- Robert Wilkie, who grew up in Fayetteville and was Trump’s secretary of Veterans Affairs, spoke to the audience before Trump came on stage. “Under Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, our military has been undervalued, under-resourced, and put in impossible situations,” he said.
- The crowd was told that a Marine veteran gave his Purple Heart medal from the Vietnam War to Trump. This was because Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt in the summer in Pennsylvania. “I couldn’t think of anybody more deserving of a Purple Heart. You took it, you laid down there, you got back up. And the first words out of your mouth was, ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’” the veteran told Trump.
- A Fort Liberty soldier said Israel’s Iron Dome defense system shot down a barrage of missiles that Iran launched at it this week. “What are your thoughts on the Iron Dome for America?” he asked. Trump answered, “I love it. We’re gonna have it.”
- A former U.S. Army Special Forces officer asked Trump how he would “repair the military” and boost military recruitment after thousands of personnel were forced out for refusing to take Covid-19 vaccines. Under President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris, the military has “the lowest recruiting in modern history, and now they’re pushing more ‘woke’ training,” the former soldier said. Trump answered that he would bring those personnel back into the military. “There should have never been a mandate, that should have never happened,” Trump said.
- A member of North Carolina’s Lumbee Tribe, who said he had served in the 82nd Airborne, asked about increasing pay for the military and reducing prices following the inflation of recent years. Trump promised to boost pay. “I’m going to take care of you, I’m going to take care of our law enforcement, and you know who else I’m going to take care of? Our teachers. Our teachers are very underpaid.”
Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg?
The idea to change Fort Liberty’s name back to Fort Bragg came up several times during the town hall.
Fort Bragg was named in honor of Braxton Bragg, who was a Confederate general born in North Carolina. Bragg fought in the Civil War against the Union led by Republican President Abraham Lincoln. In the 20th century, military bases throughout the South were named in honor of Confederate leaders who preferred to break away from the United States in 1861 rather than live under a Republican-led government that they feared would end slavery.
The name was changed in 2023 after Congress on Jan. 1, 2021, voted to override then-president Trump’s veto and remove the names of Confederate leaders from military installations as the nation and institutions evaluated past decisions and practices that were rooted in America’s history of discrimination against Black people and other ethnic groups.
What do voters think?
Voter Gail Jacobs traveled to Fayetteville from Robeson County with her husband and two teenage children. She and her family are Lumbee. She says she’s voting for Trump because she believes “he’s for the people.”
Friday’s town hall was the first time her family was able to attend one of Trump’s appearances in North Carolina, Gail Jacobs said.
“They kept telling us, ‘You might as well just go ahead and turn around. They’re not letting anybody else in,’” she said. “But we’re like, ‘No, we keep going until we get to the point where they say no.’ And we got in.”
Her husband James Jacobs said he was “raised Democrat, but after Al Gore,” he has been a Republican. He cited freedom of speech, regulating abortion and illegal immigration as his top priorities as a voter.
During Trump’s hour-long appearance Friday, the former president made no mention of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for North Carolina governor who is facing public scrutiny over salacious comments he allegedly made on a pornographic website. The comments contain graphic details about sex and slavery, including one in which Robinson allegedly refers to himself as a Black Nazi.
James Jacobs, who wore a “Mark Robinson” hat, said he thought it was “a smart move” for Trump to distance himself from Robinson. “Trump’s got to get Trump elected,” he said. “He don’t need nothing to drag him down.”
Still, James Jacobs said he’s not concerned about the validity of the comments linked to Robinson.
“You look at what a man does, not what somebody says he’s done,” James Jacobs said. “What we see, what I see he does — he’s out, he’s helping people, he’s doing what he can. I don’t know what happened years ago on some website. That could be anything.
“He denies it. Everybody deserves a second chance, even if he did do it — but he did not.”
Other town hall attendees who spoke to CityView highlighted veterans’ health care and illegal immigration as important voter issues.
Johnny Locklear, who wore a “Lumbees 4 Trump” shirt, said Trump’s promises to back full federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe were a high priority for him. (Democrats in the White House have also previously expressed support for the tribe’s full federal recognition, the Border Belt Independent reported, including Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Harris’s campaign told BBI she supports full recognition and that she will continue to push Congress to pass legislation on the matter.)
Democrats respond to Trump town hall
Ahead of Trump’s town hall, the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign held a press conference in downtown Fayetteville Friday morning, led by Democratic N.C. State Sen. Val Applewhite and Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin, as well as pastor and veteran Mark Rowden and military spouse Kellie Artis.
From noon to 2 p.m. Friday, Fayetteville residents may have also seen a small plane overhead, with a banner bearing the words: “Trump-Robinson: Too Extreme for NC.” The plane, sent by the Harris-Walz campaign, is part of an ongoing effort to link Trump with Robinson. In statements provided by the Harris team, all four speakers at Friday’s press conference also linked the two campaigns.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com. Maydha Devarajan can be reached at mdevarajan@cityviewnc.com.
This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to the CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
