Return to the US ‘War Department’ is ordered by Trump

In an executive order signed Friday, US President Donald Trump renamed the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” a moniker it used until the end of World War Two, when officials aimed to highlight the Pentagon’s role in averting war.

Trump’s action was part of his ongoing efforts to rebrand the U.S. military, which also included his decision to restore the original names of military sites that had been changed during racial justice protests in 2020 and to preside over an unusual military parade in downtown Washington, D.C.

By establishing military zones along the southern U.S. border with Mexico to support an immigration crackdown and stationing troops in places like Los Angeles and Washington, Trump has also defied accepted conventions on the domestic deployment of the U.S. armed forces.

At the U.S. military’s five-sided headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the Pentagon quickly changed the signs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s title was changed to “Secretary of War” on his door, and his No. 2 officer, Steve Feinberg, was changed to “Deputy Secretary of War.”

“It’s a very important change, because it’s an attitude,” Trump stated during a ceremony in the Oval Office, where he signed the executive order. “It’s really about winning.”

In order to make the renaming permanent, the action would direct Hegseth to suggest the necessary executive and parliamentary measures.

Changes to department names are uncommon and require approval from Congress. Despite the fact that his party Republicans have narrow majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives, Trump questioned whether he actually needed a nod from Congress.

Legislation to implement the change was presented Friday by one Republican House member, Greg Steube of Florida, and two Republican senators, Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah.

The shift, which he has long supported, was welcomed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who Trump appointed as Secretary of War.

“Instead of just playing defense, we’re going to attack. Hegseth declared, “Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.”

Before Congress combined the Army, Navy, and Air Force in 1949 following World War Two, the U.S. Department of Defense was known as the War Department. According to historians, the name was chosen in part to indicate that the United States was committed to averting war in the nuclear age.

Changing the name once more will be expensive and necessitate revising letterheads and signs used by Pentagon personnel as well as military sites worldwide.
The Army was expected to spend $39 million on a project led by former President Joe Biden to rename nine bases that honored the Confederacy and Confederate leaders. This year, Hegseth undid that effort.

The proposed name change has drawn criticism for being both expensive and a needless diversion for the Pentagon.

According to Hegseth, the reason for the name change is “not just about words — it’s about the warrior ethos.”

James Comer, the Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee, is one of Trump’s closest congressional allies. This year, he presented a bill that would facilitate a president’s ability to rename and restructure agencies.

“We’ll simply go ahead and do it. If we require that, Congress will undoubtedly comply. The defense is overly protective. Trump stated last month, “We want to be defensive, but if necessary, we also want to be offensive.”

In June, Trump again alluded to the potential for a name change, implying that the original name was changed to be “politically correct.”

However, the endeavor has a much longer history for some members of the Trump administration.

When current FBI Director Kash Patel briefly worked for the Pentagon during Trump’s first term, he signed off on his emails with the words “Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense & the War Department.”

In 2021, Patel told Reuters, “I see it as a tribute to the history and heritage of the Department of Defense.”