Top officials at the Pentagon are drafting a policy that would forbid United States military bases from flying Confederate flags.
Pentagon officials have been circulating the document to get final approval to ban the Confederate flag from military leaders in recent weeks, according to a Monday report from CNN. It is not clear if Defense Secretary Mark Esper will consult President Trump before making the order official.
If the document does become military policy, it would not be the first of its kind. Gen. Robert Abrams, who is the head of U.S. forces in Korea, banned the Confederate flag from the U.S. bases in South Korea in June, and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger barred the display of Confederate flags on all Marine bases in April.
“I am mindful that many people believe that flag to be a symbol of heritage or regional pride. But I am also mindful of the feelings of pain and rejection of those who inherited the cultural memory and present effects of the scourge of slavery in our country,” Berger said at the time of his decision to ban the flag.
“My intent is not to judge the specific meaning anyone ascribes to that symbol or declare someone’s personally held view to be incorrect. Rather, I am focused solely on building a uniquely capable warfighting team whose members come from all walks of life and must learn to operate side by side,” he added.
Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, has also ordered his staff to begin finalizing a policy that would forbid the Confederate flag from all public areas and workspaces within the Navy.
It is unclear if Trump would intervene in the decision. The president on Monday weighed in on the NASCAR debate about whether a member of black driver Bubba Wallace’s team should have reported a rope hanging in his garage stall as a noose. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump’s tweet was not related to Wallace’s leadership in securing a ban on the Confederate flag from racetracks. McEnany said that Trump “wasn’t making a judgment one way or the other” on NASCAR’s decision to ban the flag.
