President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that allows the Department of Defense to use the name “Department of War” and directs the defense secretary to propose making the name change permanent, reviving the name that the department used for more than 150 years before it was rebranded after World War II.
While Trump cannot officially rename the department without congressional approval, his order authorizes “the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense, and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as ‘Secretary of War,’ ‘Department of War,’ and ‘Deputy Secretary of War’ in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch,” according to a White House fact sheet.
The order also directs Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to propose executive and legislative actions to make the name change permanent. “The name ‘Department of War’ conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to ‘Department of Defense,’ which emphasizes only defensive capabilities,” the fact sheet reads.
Republican lawmakers are moving to codify the name change, with Sens. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) leading the effort in the Senate and Rep. Greg Steube (R., Fla.) spearheading the House version, according to a joint press release by the three lawmakers.
The renaming is part of what Hegseth has called the “warrior ethos” campaign within the Pentagon. The Trump administration has worked to showcase greater military resolve and readiness, dismantling what it calls the Biden administration’s “woke” initiatives, which officials say weakened morale and undermined the armed forces’ mission.
“The president said to me, I want you to restore the warrior ethos of our military, full stop,” Hegseth said at the Army War College in April, adding, “We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. And refocusing on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.”
The Department of War was established under George Washington in 1789 and retained the name until 1947, when then-president Harry Truman merged the War and Navy Departments with the newly formed Air Force into a single body called the National Military Establishment. Two years later, it was renamed the Department of Defense.
Trump first floated the renaming last month, saying that the United States “had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War” and that “we want defense, but we want offense, too.”
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