WASHINGTON – On Friday, President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, aiming to boost the military’s tough image.
Even though a formal name change requires legislative approval, which the administration plans to solicit from Congress, Trump will permit the Pentagon to utilize “secondary titles,” allowing it to adopt its historical name in the meantime.
The intentions were revealed by a White House insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity prior to the official announcement, and were outlined in a fact sheet provided by the White House.
Originally established as the Department of War in 1789, a name switch occurred in 1947, shortly after World War II concluded, when it became the Department of Defense.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth posted “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on social media after the executive order was initially reported by Fox News.
Trump and Hegseth have long talked about changing the name, and Hegseth even created a social media poll on the topic in March.
Recently, Trump suggested that the designation of defense secretary might not remain unchanged, referencing this possibility at numerous public venues, including a speech he delivered at Fort Benning, Georgia, on Thursday, where he indicated to the gathered soldiers that they might witness a title shift soon.
Back in August, Trump conveyed to reporters that switching back to the Department of War was appealing, noting the department’s impressive history of victories during that era, contrasting with the current Department of Defense label.
When confronted with the possibility that making the name change would require an act of Congress, Trump told reporters that “we’re just going to do it.”
“I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that,” he added.
The move is just the latest in a long line of cultural changes Hegseth has made to the Pentagon since taking office at the beginning of the year.
Early in his tenure, Hegseth pushed hard to eliminate what he saw as the impacts of “woke culture” on the military by not only ridding the department of diversity programs but scrubbing libraries and websites of material deemed to be divisive.
The result was the removal and review of hundreds of books in the military academies, which ended up including titles on the Holocaust and a Maya Angelou memoir. It also resulted in the removal off thousands of websites honoring contributions by women and minority groups.
“I think the president and the secretary have been very clear on this — that anybody that says in the Department of Defense that diversity is our strength is, is frankly, incorrect,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters in March.
Hegseth has also presided over the removal of all transgender troops from the military following an executive order from Trump through a process that some have described as “dehumanizing” or “open cruelty.”
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