September 5, 2025
In March 2025, Hegseth even created a poll on social media to see how American voters felt about the potential name change.
In a random move, President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order that will rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, in an effort to instill a tough image for America’s military, The Associated Press reported.
The plans were announced by an anonymous White House official ahead of the public announcement, scheduled for September 5. However, he can’t change the name formally without legislation that would need to come from a request from Congress — something Trump initially claimed he was unaware of. Before that happens, the Republican president will authorize the Pentagon to use “secondary titles” so the department can go by its original name.
Former Fox News host and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth seemingly supports the change. He posted “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on X following news of the announcement.
This isn’t the first time Trump and Hegseth have hinted at a name change, including the Secretary of Defense being able to use the title of Secretary of War, according to ABC News. “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 said in August 2025.
In March 2025, Hegseth even created a poll on social media to see how American voters felt about it.
History tells us that the Department of War was created to oversee the Army, Navy and Marine Corps in 1789 when the U.S. Constitution took effect. In 1947, two years after World War II ended, President Harry Truman consolidated all armed forces under a single agency, thereby establishing the Department of Defense by law.
Richard Kohn, a professor of military history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said Truman’s decision corresponded to war being bigger than just fighting. “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,” he said.
The new name attempt is the latest from Hegseth to make cultural changes to the Pentagon since taking office. Focusing on eliminating “woke culture,” the result has been the removal of hundreds of books in the military academies, including literature on the Holocaust and a Maya Angelou memoir. He also scrubbed websites honoring contributions by women and minority groups.
As Hegseth celebrated the potential name change, former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner proposed a different idea: cutting funding to the war department.
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