Department of War: Trump gives DoD ‘secondary’ name, awaiting Congressional buy in

WASHINGTON — For the first time since 1947, the Pentagon will be known as the Department of War.

Well, kind of.

In an executive order signed today, President Donald Trump announced that the Department of Defense will now use “Department of War” as a “secondary” name. It’s a move that Trump has been teasing in recent days, including on Aug. 25, when he said of the DoD, “It used to be called the Department of War and it had a stronger sound … Defense is too defensive. We want to be defensive but we want to be offensive too if we have to be.”

It’s important to note that today’s order does not change DoD’s title. Instead, the 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 factsheet, shared by PBS on X.

“Restoring the name ‘Department of War’ will sharpen the focus of this Department on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to secure its interests,” the factsheet reads.

Any official name change would need approval of Congress, but Trump told reporters he’s still not sure if they will codify the change.

“We’re going with it, and we’re going with it very strongly,” he said in the Oval Office. “There’s a question as to whether or not they have to, but we’ll put it before Congress.”

Movement already seems to be underway in the Republican-controlled Congress. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah., are backing legislation to officially revert the department’s name back.

“The U.S. military is the most lethal fighting force on the planet, & restoring the Department of War name reflects our true capabilities to win wars, not just respond to them,” Scott posted on X. 

Lawmakers on the other side of the aisle weighed in as well, such as Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., who wrote in a post on X, “Trump is begging for the Nobel Peace Prize. This should cinch it for him right?”

In the meantime, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is embracing the name change. Shortly after Trump’s announcement, the website Defense.gov redirected to War.gov (which crashed a few minutes later). And Hegseth’s social media profiles quickly shifted to describe him as “Secretary of War.”

Standing next to Trump in the Oval Office today, Hegseth cast the move as part of a broader return to a “warrior ethos” sought since Trump took office.

“It’s…restoring the warrior ethos, restoring victory and clarity as an end state. Restoring intentionality to the use of force,” he said. “So [at] your direction, Mr. President, 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 lethal. Not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.”

DoD was initially called the Department of War, or the War Department, from 1789 until after World War II in 1947 when President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, splitting the Army and the Air Force into separate service branches. Along with the Navy, the trio of services formed the National Military Establishment with a Secretary of Defense. 

If the administration opts to officially rebrand the entire department, it would likely face a hefty price tag to cover costs from stationery to an array of emblems at a time when it is also looking for ways to cut costs.

In a brief statement to Breaking Defense, a defense department official, who asked to be referred to as a “War Department official,” said the “cost estimate will fluctuate as we carry out President Trump’s directive to establish the Department of War’s name. We will have a clearer estimate to report at a later time.”

Trump, for his part, downplayed any concern about cost, saying the shift could be done with a phased approach, such as simply updating old stationary when it runs out.

Kori Schake, a senior fellow and the director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at AEI, did not seem impressed with the change.

“What would really increase the Department’s focus is prioritizing on-time passage of a budget, acquisition reform, and not squandering decades of war fighting experience by arbitrarily firing senior officers instead of doing circus tricks like changing DOD’s name,” Schake told Breaking Defense.

From his vantage point, Michael O’Hanlon — Brooking’s director of Research for Foreign Policy — said that out of the “litany of Trumpian changes,” he’s not too excited about this one.

“Certainly, the dismantling of AID, for example, strikes me as a far more serious and regrettable decision than a possible name change at the Pentagon,” he told Breaking Defense. “That said, I don’t like it. In the nuclear age, even more than before, our military’s main purpose should be to deter war, not fight it.”

While that deterrence does require combat capability, O’Hanlon added, it also requires “presence, reassurance, deterrence, joint exercising with other countries, and other activities” that do not fall under the definition of “war.”

“We [should not] want to reinforce the overseas narrative that we are a bellicose people,” he wrote. “In the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, and before that Vietnam, many still suspect we are a militarized society and nation. Adding to that narrative doesn’t make sense to me.”

Aaron Mehta contributed to this report.