In a move certain to spark debate in Washington and beyond, President Donald Trump has instructed that the Pentagon shed its long-standing title as the Department of Defense and instead be referred to by its pre–World War II name: the Department of War.
The order, a copy of which was seen by the BBC, frames the rebrand as a signal of “strength and resolve.” For now, the name will be used as a secondary title, while the administration prepares the ground for congressional approval to make it permanent.
The White House has not disclosed the likely cost of the overhaul, though US media report it could run into the billions, given the scale of changes required across insignia, agency stationery, uniforms, email systems, and more.
The War Department, created in 1789 under George Washington, directed US military affairs until 1947, when it was reorganised as the Department of Defense at the dawn of the Cold War. Trump has long argued that the old name carried greater weight, citing America’s victories in two world wars.
Read also: UK Imposes Airspace Restrictions For Trump State Visit
Under the new directive, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will be styled Secretary of War, with instructions to recommend legislative and executive steps to cement the renaming.
Some Democrats dismissed the move outright. Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey called it “a childish idea,” saying voters care more about preventing wars than advertising them.
For Trump and Hegseth, the change is part of a broader push to reassert what they call a “warrior ethos” within the department, at the expense of diversity and inclusion programmes they have derided as “woke ideology.”
The signing will mark the 200th executive order of Trump’s presidency.