President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War on Friday, arguing it broadcasts strength.
“This is something we thought long and hard about. We’ve been talking about it for months,” Trump said Friday from the Oval Office. “I think it’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.”
Renaming an agency requires an act of Congress. But the administration made clear its desire to make a push for that. Speaking alongside the president and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine on Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose title would also change, said the name change is more than symbolic.
“This name change is not just about renaming, it’s about restoring. Words matter,” Hegseth said. “Restoring the warrior ethos, restoring victory and clarity as an end state, restoring intentionality to the use of force.”
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“We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense,” Hegseth continued. “Lethality, not tepid legality.”
The U.S. had a Department of War until 1947, when the Truman administration split the Army and Air Force into separate military branches and joined them with the then-independent Navy to form a new agency, the Department of Defense, according to the agency’s website.
The executive order will restore “Department of War” as a secondary title and direct “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth to pursue legislative avenues to make the name permanent, according to a White House fact sheet.
On Friday, Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Rick Scott introduced legislation in the Senate to formalize the name change, while Florida Rep. Greg Steube is leading legislation on the House side.
“The United States military is not a purely defensive force,” Scott said in a joint news release. “We are the most lethal fighting force on the face of the planet — ready to defeat any enemy when called upon.”
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