WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has signed an order to bring back the old War Department name for the Pentagon, saying it better reflects strength and victory.
Flanked by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth at a signing ceremony in the White House, the Republican president called the change a powerful symbol, replacing the Department of Defence title that has been in use for more than 70 years.
He said the current name was too “wokey.”
“I think it sends a message of victory,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about the rebrand. “It’s a much more appropriate name in light of where the world is right now.”
The name harks back to the War Department, the title used for more than 150 years from 1789, just after independence from Britain, until 1947, shortly after the Second World War.
Trump cannot formally change the Pentagon’s name without congressional approval — but the 79-year-old’s order authorises the use of the new label as a “secondary title.”
Former Fox News host Hegseth quickly embraced the change, posting a video of a new nameplate reading “Secretary of War” being fixed to his door at the Pentagon.
The combat veteran, appointed by Trump to lead a major overhaul of the sprawling department, said the change was “not just about renaming, it’s about restoring the warrior ethos.”
“Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders,” said Hegseth.
Trump meanwhile appeared to blame America’s military setbacks since its victories in the First and Second World Wars on the 1949 decision to call it the Department of Defense.
“We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct or wokey,” said Trump, who was signing the 200th executive order of his second term.
Too ‘defensive’
The rebrand is part of Trump’s broader push to project power at home and abroad in his second term under the “Make America Great Again” policy.
He has ordered a US military build-up in the Caribbean to counter what he calls drug cartels led by Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro. US forces killed 11 people earlier this week in a strike on what Washington said was a drug-carrying boat.
Trump also ordered a US military strike on Iranian nuclear sites in June.
Domestically, he has deployed the US National Guard in Washington and Los Angeles in recent months, describing it as a crackdown on crime and illegal immigration.
Trump’s “Department of War” move could also sit uneasily with his campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize, for what he claims is his role in ending several conflicts — he has alternately said six and seven.
Democrats have dismissed the move as an expensive political stunt by the billionaire.
The White House has yet to say how much a rebrand would cost, though US media expect a billion-dollar price tag for the overhaul of hundreds of agencies, emblems, email addresses, and uniforms.
A Pentagon official told AFP: “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 had trailed the announcement for weeks, complaining that the Department of Defense sounded too “defensive” and made America appear weak.
Hegseth has also attacked previous administrations for policies he and Trump derided as “woke.”
Notably, he has sought to expel transgender troops from the military and to restore the original names of bases once honouring Confederate soldiers, after they were renamed under President Joe Biden.
The War Department was created in August 1789 to oversee the US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, according to an official Pentagon history web page. The Navy and Marines split off a decade later.
