by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News September 5, 2025
President Donald Trump is renaming the Department of Defense.

In an executive order he was set to sign on Friday, Trump was to change the name to the Department of War, making good on his promise to realign the mission of U.S. armed forces.

The Department of War was used for over 150 years until changing to the Department of Defense in 1949 after World War II.

Trump told reporters in August that he would likely change the name.

“Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,” Trump said at the time. “Then we changed it to Department of Defense.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth noted: “We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War. As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense.”

“We’ve reestablished at the Department the warrior ethos,” Hegseth added. “We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy. We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defense. We think words and names and titles matter. So, we’re working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by.”

The president’s executive order calls for using the Department of War as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with phrases like “secretary of war” for Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet.

The order also instructs Hegseth to propose both legislative and executive actions to make the name permanently U.S. Department of War.

Implementing the order will require modifications to public-facing websites and office signage at the Pentagon, including renaming the public affairs briefing room the “Pentagon War Annex,” according to a White House official.

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