25 Aug 2025 8:04 pm
This should put the fear of God back in our enemy's hearts.
Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth ready to change Defense Department's name
(Full article at above link)
President Donald Trump says he wants to change the name of the Department of Defense back to its original title: the Department of War. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, the president said, in part, "It just sounded bad to me, 'On behalf of the Department of Defense?' Defense? I don't want to be defense only. We want defense but we want offense, too, if that's OK. As the Department of War, we won everything, and I think we're going to have to go back to that.
"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing behind him, said, "That's coming soon, sir. "
The Pentagon carried that name until 1949 when it was rebranded amid post–World War II restructuring.
The Department of War existed for 158 years, having been established by President George Washington in 1789. It was dissolved in the 1940s, with the different components becoming the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. The DOD was then renamed in 1949.
Renaming the department would likely require an act of Congress, with the president asking about that hurdle later Monday when back in the Oval Office with reporters.
"I'm sure Congress will go along with that," Trump responded, adding that the Department of War was the name under which the U.S.' armed forces had "won World War I, we one World War II."