Trump wants to rename VE day "Victory in WW2 day" and Nov 11th as Victory in WW1 day"

[cakeorwine]

Apparently the USA did "more than any other country" and nobody was close in terms of strength, bravery or military brilliance - so he wants to celebrate victories.

https://bsky.app/profile/number10cat.bsky.social/post/3lo7buvd7d22d

Stats are here

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-worldwide-deaths-world-war

Soviet Union
Military deaths: 8,800,000-10,700,000
Combined military and civillian deaths: 24,000,000

USA:

Military deaths::416,800
Combined military and civillian deaths:418,500

UK

Military deaths: 383,600
Combined military and civillian deaths:450,700

China

China
Military deaths: 3-4,000,000
Combined military and civillian deaths:20,000,000

If he wanted to upset Russia, this is how to do it.

It's also going to upset other countries who suffered massively in WW2 and also fought alongside the USA to defeat the Nazis and also the Japanese

He's a complete numpty idiot. We can continue to call VE day VE day. He'll be on some other nonsense by tomorrow

As an American he should know that the war (2nd ) didn’t end on 8th May. It’s months later before we had VJ (Victory in Japan Day) and the war finally ended.
But of course he knows very little about quite a lot.

I like this quote from CNN

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/02/politics/rename-veterans-day-victory-day

“Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” Trump’s social media post said.
Historians, however, call September 2, 1945, the day Japan signed surrender documents aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay as V-J Day, and the official end of World War II.

Because WW2 ended when Japan surrendered. Which you would have hoped a US President would know that.

Fox News clearly forgot to mention the Soviet Unions involvement

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-declares-may-8-victory-day-world-war-ii-going-start-celebrating-our-victories-again

""We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything," the president wrote. "That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!""

Nov 11th should be about remembering the people who died.

We commemorate the end of WW1 - and clearly VE day is a day of celebration that the war in Europe had ended although hard fighting was still taking place against Japan.

Without the Russians we’d have been screwed

Exactly.

I wonder how much WW2 history he actually knows?

He's very keen on "hereby renaming"

He’s got such an approximate grasp of the English language.

It's also insulting to the many US troops who died in the Japanese campaign - WW2 didn't end on May 8th

I worked out from Wikipedia stats that UK military deaths in WW2 were equivalent to 0.8% of the 1939 UK population. And military deaths won’t include the 30k Londoners killed in the Blitz, for example.
US military deaths in WW2 were 0.3% of the 1939 US population. Proportionately the toll it took on Britain was far higher (hardly surprising as we were fighting the war on our own for two years before the US joined and Russia joined our side). I haven’t worked out the equivalent stat for Russia.

Who cares what he thinks- the man is a clown and a Putin puppet. He has mocked disabled veterans and saluted a north Korean leader. He has no clue about military valour or sacrifice.

I wonder if he knew countries were celebrating VE day soon and wanted to do the same - and he just forgot about VJ day when he decided to announce it on social media.

Off your point but i read that only 3% of the 18 year olds mobilised in 1941 would still be alive in 1945

Thank you for mentioning VJ Day it always seems to gets lost in the VE celebrations.
My Dad fought in Burma in WWII, and it must have been awful for my Mum when they were celebrating victory in Europe, and yet they were still fighting in the east until August, At least Dad came home (obviously!).

That doesn't seem right.

Most soldiers survived WW2.

Even those who started at the beginning.

Is it a surprise that he’s an ignoramus?

At Arlington cemetery the dates of wwii are 1941-1945 🤷‍♀️ go figure

Urgh, yes VE Day simply commemorates WW2 ending within Europe on 8/5/45.

The Forgotten War.
And a lot of focus on the US against Japan but little about other forces such as the UK etc against Japan.

Well he can call it what he wants and celebrate what he wants in the USofA.

It won't change what its called and how it's commemorated in Europe

Oh that’s so sad.

I really don't think that's correct.

I’m on an emotional rollercoaster here

Does he think it's called VE day because Europe "won" or some other nonsense? Rather than it being the end of the European theatre of conflict.

He can call it what he likes but the rest of the world will call it VE day. My uncle was born on VE day , he was 2 months premature and weighed just 1lb. The midwife couldn't get to the house where they lived in Salford for the celebrations on the street. My Grandma and the neighbour who was with her thought he was still born until the midwife wrapped him in another towel and he suddenly started wailing. My poor grandma, she had a tough war and that really was a final day of drama!

Her husband/my grandad was a merchant seaman and still at sea when my uncle was born and still at risk from mines although the U-boats were no longer a threat.

November 11th is Remembrance Day. It's not just about WW1. At the first one there would have been people remembering those lost in the Boer War.
In America they call November 11th Veterans Day. I would imagine there would be an outrage if they changed it.
Everyone should just ignore Trump.
Just ignore him.

About as much as he knows about any history so the square root of fuck all.