Trump to Rebrand Pentagon as ‘Department of War’

By Staff, Agencies

Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday authorizing the US Department of Defense to rebrand itself as the “department of war”, the White House said, as part of an attempt to formalize the name change without an act of Congress.

The order will designate “department of war” as a “secondary title”, an administration official said, as a way to get around the need for congressional approval to formally rename a federal agency.

But the order will instruct the rest of the executive branch to use the “department of war” name in internal and external communications, and allows the defense secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials to use “secretary of war” as official titles.

The order – seemingly in recognition of the limitation of the executive action alone – also directs Hegseth to recommend potential legislative moves the administration could take to permanently rename the defense department.

Trump and Hegseth have been publicly pushing for the rebrand for weeks, claiming the change would present the US military as more aggressive to the world by reverting to the name that was used when the US was victorious in the first and second world wars.

“Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was the Department of War,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week. “Then we changed it to Department of Defense.”

Asked about the need for congressional approval to change the name of a federal agency, Trump suggested the administration saw it as a formality. “We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along, if we need that. I don’t think we even need that,” he said.

White House officials privately suggested on Thursday that they were keen to do something symbolic to mark the 200th day of Trump’s second term.

The US had a Department of War until 1949, when it was renamed the Department of Defense under Truman. Now, Trump seeks to revive the old name—despite touting himself as a peace broker in the Middle East and Ukraine.

But critics have suggested the renaming of effort runs counter to the aims of the prize and his interventions to try to end conflicts have come at a cost, arguing Trump often aligns himself with aggressors.