Trump ordering to be called the Department of Defense
The Department of Defense will soon be called the War Department, President Donald Trump plans to announce in an executive order on Friday.
The White House confirmed the new name to News themezone on Thursday after multiple reports on brand change. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, also seemed to confirm the new name, publish in X: “War Department” and link to News report on the new name.
“Restoring the name ‘War Department’ will sharpen the approach of this department in our national interest and point to the adversaries the preparation of the United States to free the war to ensure their interests,” according to a document that the Washington Post obtained that it describes the order.
For now, the war department will be a secondary name, since a unilateral name change would require an act of Congress.
There was a war department from 1789 to 1947 until Congress approved a law that combines with the departments of the Navy and the Air Force to create the National Military Establishment (NME). That effort was promoted by then President Harry Truman, partly to “reduce the rivalry between services, which was believed to reduce military effectiveness during World War,” according to national archives.
Via News
But NME was an “unfortunate abbreviation” with “the obvious pronunciation being ‘enemy’,” the archives said. In 1949, the Department of Defense was renamed, as is known today.
A person familiar with the brand change told the post that Hegesh has been launching the idea since March after Trump told him in a meeting that looked “more to a secretary of war.”
Trump, who supervised several changes in institutional name throughout his second term, began to publicly float the new name this summer, telling White House journalists last month that the previous name “had a stronger sound.”
“I am sure that Congress will continue, if we need it. I don’t think we even need it,” he continued.
ForceOurJournalism
Your supportFuelOur mission
Your supportFuelOur mission
His membership combines reports that report, inspire and make power responsible. Stop with us in this work: become a member now.
Join, read, impact
We remain committed to providing unwavering journalism and based on facts that everyone deserves.
Thanks again for your support on the way. We are really grateful for readers like you! His initial support helped us take us here and reinforced our writing room, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you join us once again.
We remain committed to providing unwavering journalism and based on facts that everyone deserves.
Thanks again for your support on the way. We are really grateful for readers like you! His initial support helped us take us here and reinforced our writing room, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you join us once again.
Support News themezone
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
And in June, he said that the nickname of the War Department was eliminated because “we became politically correct.”
Historians say that is not what happened.
“The decision was definitely not about political correction,” said military historian Richard Kohn to New York Times last month. “It was to communicate with the adversaries of the United States and the rest of the world that the United States was not about making war but defending the United States, and saying that if that requires war, there are four main armed services.”