In a move that has already sparked debate across Washington and beyond, President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Friday, September 5, 2025, granting the Department of Defense a new—yet old—secondary title: the Department of War. The decision, confirmed by multiple White House officials and widely reported by outlets such as Fox News, CBS News, NBC News, and NPR, marks a dramatic shift in how the administration wants the world, and America itself, to perceive the nation’s military might.
According to a White House fact sheet obtained by CBS News, the executive order will allow the Department of Defense to use "Department of War" as a secondary title. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will be authorized to call himself "Secretary of War," and his subordinates will also be able to use war-themed titles in official correspondence, public communications, and even during formal ceremonies. All other executive departments and agencies will be directed to "recognize and accommodate" these secondary titles in their internal and external communications.
The order doesn’t officially change the Department’s name—at least not yet. As NBC News explains, a permanent renaming would require an act of Congress. But the executive order instructs Hegseth to recommend both legislative and executive actions to make the change permanent. The White House is also considering other avenues to solidify the shift, though the path forward remains somewhat murky. Trump, for his part, has expressed confidence that Congress would eventually support the move if necessary. "We're just going to do it," Trump told reporters in August. "I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't think we even need that. But if we need that, I'm sure Congress will go along."
The symbolism behind the change is no accident. The Trump administration, especially under Defense Secretary Hegseth, has been pushing what it calls a "warrior ethos" within the Pentagon. Hegseth recently renamed his own Pentagon conference room the "W.A.R. Room," a nod to the administration’s desire for a more aggressive posture. "We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department," Hegseth said on Fox & Friends. "As the president has said, we're not just defense, we're offense. We've reestablished at the Department the warrior ethos. 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 White House fact sheet, as reported by CBS News, argues that "the United States military is the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world, and the President believes this Department should have a name that reflects its unmatched power and readiness to protect national interests." Trump himself has been blunt about his reasoning: "The Department of Defense moniker is 'too defensive.' We want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive, too, if we have to be." In the Oval Office last month, he elaborated, "As Department of War, we won everything. We won everything. I think we're going to have to go back to that."
This isn’t the first time the U.S. military bureaucracy has undergone a major rebranding. The Department of War was established in 1789, overseeing the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. In the wake of World War II, President Harry Truman spearheaded a sweeping reorganization of the military. The War and Navy Departments were merged into the National Military Establishment in 1947, with the Air Force formally established as a separate branch. Just two years later, in 1949, Congress changed the name to the Department of Defense, aiming to unify the services under a single civilian secretary and, as NBC News notes, to avoid the unfortunate abbreviation “NME” (which sounded a bit too much like "enemy").
Trump’s move is, in many ways, a return to the language of the early republic and the world wars. "Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War," Trump told reporters on August 25, according to Fox News. Hegseth echoed this sentiment, telling a Cabinet meeting last month that the change would help cement a "warrior ethos" in the department.
But the renaming is not just about symbolism. The executive order, according to Fox News and CBS News, will require updates to Pentagon signage, including renaming the public affairs briefing room the "Pentagon War Annex." Other public-facing websites and office signage are set for revision. Longer-term projects are also being considered as part of the broader rebranding effort. As the largest department in the U.S. government, even these changes could prove costly. NPR points out that, in 2023, renaming just nine Army bases cost taxpayers $39 million. The White House has not provided an estimate for the price tag of a full Department of War rebrand, which would affect everything from office signs to uniforms, stationary, and email addresses.
It’s not lost on observers that the move comes at a time of heightened global tensions and domestic debate over the role of American military power. Supporters argue the change reflects a renewed sense of resolve and clarity about the military’s purpose. "The name change would convey a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to 'Department of Defense,' which highlights only defensive capabilities, and it'll sharpen the department's focus on national interest and signify to adversaries that it's prepared to wage war to secure interests," a White House official told Axios.
Critics, however, worry about the implications of such a rhetorical shift. Some see the move as unnecessarily bellicose, potentially sending the wrong message to allies and adversaries alike. Others question whether the executive branch can make such a change without congressional approval, given that the Department of Defense’s name is set in federal law. As CBS News and NBC News both report, any permanent change would ultimately require Congress to act, despite the administration’s confidence that it can move forward unilaterally for now.
Still, the administration is forging ahead. Hegseth, who has been a vocal proponent of the "warrior ethos," even referred to the Pentagon as the "War Department" during a trip to Fort Benning, Georgia, on September 4, 2025, according to NBC News. On social media, he simply posted, "DEPARTMENT OF WAR." For Hegseth and Trump, the words matter—and they believe the world is watching.
Whether Congress will ultimately support the change, or whether the new title will stick, remains to be seen. For now, the Department of Defense is preparing to embrace its old identity, at least in name, as the Department of War—signaling a new era, or perhaps a return to an older one, for America’s armed forces.
