US president Donald Trump is to sign an executive order on Friday changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, reverting to a title not used since the 1940s in line with his often-expressed desire to boost projections of US American military might.
The plans to change the department’s name were described by a White House official on condition of anonymity ahead of the signing. The official said changes would include renaming the Pentagon’s briefing room the “Pentagon War Annex” and modifying the department’s website and signage. The plans were first reported by Fox News Digital.
Mr Trump has long considered changing the name of the department, even though he boasts about his efforts to end wars abroad and argues that he’s deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. On social media, Mr Trump has referred repeatedly to US defence secretary Pete Hegseth as the “secretary of war” and asked his followers whether he should rename the department.
“We won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything, and it just to me seems much more appropriate,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last month. “Defence is too defensive and we want to be defensive but we want to be offensive too if we have to be, so it just sounded to me like a better name.”
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Mr Hegseth shared the Fox News Digital report on X, with the new name of his department. He had hinted at the coming change during a speech at Fort Benning, on Georgia’s border with Alabama, on Thursday, saying his job may have “a slightly different title tomorrow, we’ll see.”
Mr Trump and Mr Hegseth have sought to project a more muscular image for the Pentagon, and despite the president’s argument that he’s ended at least seven wars, he’s also launched several military strikes in his second term in the White House. That includes bombing Houthi rebels in Yemen, a strike on Iran’s nuclear programme and, most recently, an attack on alleged drug-runners on a motorboat in the Caribbean Sea.
Mr Trump has also stoked controversy by enlisting the military to support immigration enforcement and border security, including by deploying the National Guard — and allowing them to carry their service weapons — as part of his takeover of the Washington DC police.
Mr Trump has appeared unbothered by the fact that an official name change for the Defense Department would likely require an act of Congress.
“We’re just going to do it, I’m sure Congress will go along, I don’t even think we need that,” he said last month.
The 1947 National Security Act merged the War Department, which dated to 1789, with the Department of the Navy and the Air Force into the National Military Establishment, led by the secretary of defence. The new entity was renamed the Defense Department in a 1949 amendment to the National Security Act.
Mr Trump has charged Mr Hegseth with rebuilding the military, which he says was greatly diminished under former president Joe Biden. His administration has touted strong recruiting numbers evidence that his moves have strong public support. — Bloomberg
