President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday afternoon to rename the Defense Department the Department of War.
The president likely lacks the authority to formally change the name without legislation from Congress. In the meantime, Trump authorized the Pentagon to use secondary titles such as “secretary of war” and “Department of War” in official correspondence and public communications so the department can go by its original name.
The administration has teased the change for a while. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth even created a social media poll on the topic in March. Hegseth during a commencement speech to new military officers Thursday at Fort Benning, Ga., said his job title “may be a slightly different title tomorrow.”
“I would say standby tomorrow,” Hegseth said when asked about a potential change. “It’s something that — words matter. Titles matter. Cultures matter. And George Washington founded the War Department. We’ll see.”
Last month in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that “everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War. Then we changed it to Department of Defense.”
