diff --git a/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.cxx b/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.cxx
index 760a5ab18e..1b973e0974 100644
--- a/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.cxx
@@ -679,11 +679,7 @@ cmGlobalNinjaGenerator::GenerateBuildCommand(
   makeCommand.Add(makeOptions.begin(), makeOptions.end());
   for (const auto& tname : targetNames) {
     if (!tname.empty()) {
-      if (tname == "clean") {
-        makeCommand.Add("-t", "clean");
-      } else {
-        makeCommand.Add(tname);
-      }
+      makeCommand.Add(tname);
     }
   }
   return { std::move(makeCommand) };
diff --git a/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.h b/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.h
index ce9d1248db..ffcea60750 100644
--- a/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.h
+++ b/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.h
@@ -43,8 +43,6 @@ struct cmDocumentationEntry;
  *   it is handle by Ninja's -v option.
  * - We don't care about computing any progress status since Ninja manages
  *   it itself.
- * - We don't care about generating a clean target since Ninja already have
- *   a clean tool.
  * - We generate one build.ninja and one rules.ninja per project.
  * - We try to minimize the number of generated rules: one per target and
  *   language.