US President Donald Trump on September 5 ordered his administration to rename the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” bringing back a Cabinet name abandoned in 1947 to match what White House officials call a new “warrior ethos” it is instilling in the Armed Forces.
Trump signed an executive order making the Department of War a new “secondary name” for the Defense Department, USA Today reported
The move empowers Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use titles such as “Department of War,” “Secretary of War” and "Deputy Secretary of War” in official government correspondence and communications without formally changing the department’s name, which would require action from Congress.
“We won the First World War. We won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between,” Trump said before signing the order in the Oval Office. “And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to the Department of Defense. So we're going Department of War.”
Ironically, Trump's return to the Department of War comes as he's tried to cast himself as a peacemaker in several international conflicts, while also flexing the might of the U.S. military.
“I think it's a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now. We have the strongest military in the world,” Trump said. “I think we’ve gotten peace because of the fact that we're strong.”
Shortly after Trump signed the order, the Pentagon’s official website redirected visitors to war.gov. Hegseth updated his profile on X to reflect the change. And the secretary posted a video showing the “Secretary of Defense” placard on his office door getting taken down and replaced with “Secretary of War.”
Under the order, all executive departments and agencies are required to recognize and accommodate the change to “Department of War” in internal and external communications. The order further instructs Hegseth to recommend legislative and executive actions to permanently rename the U.S. Department of Defense to the U.S. Department of War.
“It’s not just about renaming. It's about restoring,” Hegseth said. “Words matter. It’s restoring, as you’ve guided us to, Mr. President, restoring the warrior ethos, restoring victory and clarity as an end state, restoring intentionality to the use of force.”
Hegseth added: “The War Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It’s going to fight to win, not to lose. We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct.”
The Trump administration has not provided a cost estimate for changing references from the Department of Defense to the Department of War throughout the government.
“We know how to rebrand without having to go crazy,” Trump said, adding the changes will be undertaken “not in the most expensive way.”
The Department of War was established in 1789 as the original Cabinet department overseeing the U.S. Army. A separate Department of the Navy was created the same year.
The Department of War was dissolved after World War II by the National Security Act of 1947, which merged the Army and Navy departments and created a new Air Force, jointly known as the National Military Establishment (NME), during the Presidency of Harry Truman.
The NME was renamed the Defense Department in 1949. Among the reasons the name was chosen, according to historians, was to signal that the United States prioritized preventing wars in the post-World War II nuclear age.
Hegseth said he agreed with Trump that “we haven’t won a major war” since ditching the name Department of War in 1947, adding “that’s not to disparage our war fighters” in the Korean and Vietnam wars and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We’re going to raise up warriors,” Hegseth said of the name change, “not just defenders.” (USA Today; Photo © Reuters)
