WASHINGTON (Realist English). US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Friday designating the Department of War as an official secondary title for the Pentagon, according to a White House official. The measure is intended to underscore what the administration calls America’s “unmatched military power” while a full legal name change is pursued through Congress.
“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,” the White House said in a statement.
Trump has long argued that the US won two world wars when its military arm was called the Department of War, a name it held from 1789 until 1947. “We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was the Department of War, then we changed it to Department of Defense,” he told reporters last week in the Oval Office.
Under the new order, the Pentagon will be permitted to use the Department of War designation in official correspondence, public communications and ceremonies. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth will also be allowed to use the title “Secretary of War”. Hegseth, a close Trump ally, has said the military must realign with “the warrior ethos” and leave behind “wokeness and weakness.”
The order further instructs Hegseth to prepare recommendations for legislative and executive actions to permanently rename the department. Trump said last week he expected Congress to “go along” with the change.
Analysts note that a formal renaming would require substantial spending to update signage and official materials across the Pentagon and US military bases worldwide. The original change in 1947 merged the Navy and War Departments into the National Military Establishment, which became the Department of Defense in 1949.
Neither the Pentagon nor senior lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee responded to requests for comment. On Thursday evening, Hegseth reposted an article about the decision on social media, writing simply: “DEPARTMENT OF WAR.”
