In a move that has sparked both applause and controversy, President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on September 5, 2025, to officially rebrand the U.S. Department of Defense as the “Department of War,” according to multiple reports from ABC News, The Associated Press, and Reuters. While the change will not immediately alter the department’s legal name—Congressional approval is required for that—the order will allow the new title to be used in official correspondence, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, will also be permitted to use the title “Secretary of War,” a symbolic shift that has reignited debate over the nation’s military identity and priorities.
The rebranding effort, which White House officials say is part of a broader push to project a more forceful image for the U.S. military, comes after months of public hints from President Trump. “We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don’t think we even need that,” Trump told reporters last month, according to ABC News. He has repeatedly argued that the current name, Department of Defense, is “too defensive,” and that a return to the older moniker would remind Americans of past military victories and a time when, in his words, “we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War.”
Indeed, the Department of Defense was originally known as the Department of War when it was created by Congress in 1789 to oversee the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The Navy was later separated out, and after World War II, President Harry Truman led a reorganization that consolidated all armed forces under the Department of Defense. At the time, the name change was meant to reflect a broader mission that went beyond simply waging war. As Richard Kohn, a professor of military history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explained to ABC News, “It was clear from World War II that warfare was going to be joint and combined, so it was just necessary … It was clear to some as early as the 1930s that you would have to integrate military affairs and war and preparations for war, the Treasury Department, with intelligence, allied policy issues and domestic industrial policy.” The Truman administration wanted an agency that could encompass all aspects of defense, not just war-making.
But for President Trump and his allies, the pendulum has swung back. Trump has said the new name is meant to rekindle the “warrior ethos” that he believes should define America’s military posture in the world. “Defense is too defensive. And we want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive too, if we have to be,” Trump said, as reported by The Associated Press. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment in a recent Fox News interview, stating, “We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy. We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defence. We think words and names and titles matter. So, we’re working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by.” On September 4, Hegseth posted “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on social media above a news story about the impending change, underlining his support for the initiative.
The executive order will also instruct Hegseth to recommend legislative and executive actions needed to make the renaming permanent, according to a White House fact sheet cited by Reuters. Until Congress acts, however, the “Department of War” will serve only as a secondary name—one that can be used in speeches, press releases, and other non-statutory documents, but not on legal contracts or appropriations.
Changing the name of a federal department is no small feat, and the formal process requires an act of Congress. The last time such a change occurred was in 1947, when the War Department was merged with other military branches and renamed the National Military Establishment, before being amended to the Department of Defense. Those changes, too, were made through Congressional action. Today, Republicans hold slim majorities in both the House and Senate, and party leaders have shown little appetite for opposing Trump’s initiatives. One of Trump’s closest congressional allies, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, has even introduced a bill that would make it easier for presidents to reorganize and rename agencies.
Still, critics from across the aisle have questioned both the necessity and the cost of the rebranding. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters, “Why not put this money toward supporting military families or toward employing diplomats that help prevent conflicts from starting in the first place? Because Trump would rather use our military to score political points than to strengthen our national security and support our brave servicemembers and their families—that’s why.”
There are also practical concerns. Renaming the department will require updating signage, letterheads, and official documents not only at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., but also at military installations around the world. A recent effort by former President Joe Biden to rename nine military bases that honored Confederate leaders was projected to cost the Army $39 million, a figure cited by Reuters as a point of comparison. That effort, notably, was reversed by Hegseth earlier this year as part of the Trump administration’s government downsizing campaign led by the Department of Government Efficiency.
For some, the issue is more than just semantics—it’s about the message America sends to the world and to its own citizens. The original switch from “War Department” to “Department of Defense” in the late 1940s was, according to historians, a deliberate attempt to signal a shift in U.S. military strategy, especially in the nuclear age. The new name was meant to emphasize deterrence, diplomacy, and a commitment to preventing conflict, rather than simply waging war. “Defense was what was talked about in the 1940s, not just war-making,” Kohn told ABC News.
Yet for others, the change is about honoring tradition and projecting strength. Trump has argued that the “Department of War” moniker is a tribute to the nation’s history and heritage, recalling the days when the United States emerged as a global superpower following its victories in World Wars I and II. Kash Patel, the current FBI Director who briefly served at the Pentagon during Trump’s first term, told Reuters in 2021, “I view it as a tribute to the history and heritage of the Department of Defense.”
The debate over the department’s name is just the latest in a series of efforts by the Trump administration to reshape the identity of key government institutions. Since January 2025, Trump has moved to restore the original names of military bases, rename geographic features like the Gulf of Mexico, and reverse changes made in response to racial justice protests. Each move has drawn a mix of praise from supporters who see them as a return to American strength and criticism from those who view them as costly distractions from more pressing challenges.
As the executive order is set to be signed, one thing is clear: the question of what to call America’s military headquarters is about more than just words on a letterhead. It’s a reflection of how the nation sees itself—both its past and its future—at a pivotal moment in its history.
