The New York Times has obtained a recording of a phone call between President Trump and Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe this week in which they discuss keeping the name of at least one Confederate leader on a military base.
"We’re going to keep the name of Robert E. Lee," Trump said on the call.
"Just trust me, I’ll make it happen," Inhofe replied.
The Times reported the call was recorded by someone in a Washington, D.C., restaurant on Wednesday and that Inhofe put the call on speaker phone to hear the president better. In a tweet last week, Trump said he had Inhofe’s assurance a provision in this year’s defense spending bill to remove confederate leaders’ names from military installations would not be in the final version.
Trump seemed to refer to that tweet in the call.
"You know, I had about 95,000 positive retweets on that. That’s a lot. You know, that’s a lot," Trump said.
Trump went on to criticize "cancel culture."
"Cancel culture, they don’t want it. They want to be able to go back to life, not this bulls***," Trump said.
The two also appear to discuss Anthony Tata, a retired Army brigadier general whose nomination for a top Pentagon post Inhofe delayed the next day. Tata has referred to President Barack Obama as a "terrorist leader" and has frequently appeared on Fox News. Trump had been pressing Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, for a hearing, according to the Washington Post.
