US President Donald Trump shows a signed executive order next to the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on September 5, 2025. (Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP)
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an order rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, saying it sent a "message of victory" to the world.
"It's a much more appropriate name in light of where the world is right now," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, flanked by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, who can now be known as "secretary of war."
File: A view of the Pentagon on December 13, 2024, in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump is changing the name of the Department of Defense to the "Department of War," the White House announced on September 4, 2025. (Photo by Daniel Slim / AFP)
The name harks back to the War Department, the title used for more than 150 years from 1789, just after independence from Britain, to 1947, shortly after World War II.
Trump cannot formally change the name of the Pentagon without the approval of Congress, but the 79-year-old's order authorizes the use of the new label as a "secondary title."
He even appeared to blame America's military misadventures since its victories in World Wars I and II on the decision to call it the Department of Defense, which was made in 1949.
"We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct or wokey," Trump said.
The White House is yet to say how much a rebrand would cost, but US media expect a billion-dollar price tag for the overhaul of hundreds of agencies, emblems, email addresses and uniforms.
