"These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom," Trump said in a tweet that was also read out by his spokeswoman at a press conference.

"My Administration will not even consider renaming these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations. Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with," he wrote.

"Respect our Military!"

The importance given by Trump to keeping bases like Fort Bragg in North Carolina as they are was underlined by the decision of press secretary Kayleigh McEnany to read out the tweet and to give printed copies of it to White House reporters.

The demand for renaming such installations has taken momentum in the wake of mass protests across the United States against police brutality and racism against African-Americans.

Ten bases named after generals from the secessionist South, which lost the Civil War and its effort to preserve slavery, are in the spotlight.

They include the famous Fort Bragg, Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Benning in Georgia.

Anger from anti-racism protesters has also focused on statues of southern Civil War heroes and most lately a statue of explorer Christopher Columbus, who opened the Americas to European settlement.

A statue of the navigator was beheaded in Boston, police said Wednesday.

Similar attacks on statues of historical figures seen by activists as glorifying racism and slavery have taken place in Britain and Belgium.