Donald Trump was due to sign an executive order on Friday renaming the US department of defence as the department of war, according to a White House official, as the president seeks to project American military strength.
Under the changes, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defence, will be recognised as the secretary of war.
The executive order will direct that department of war be made a secondary title for the defence department while the administration pursues a formal name change, which requires congressional approval.
“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 factsheet.
RM Block
Mr Trump expressed his desire to change the defence department’s name last month, saying that the US won two world wars when it was called the war department between 1789 and 1947.
“We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was department of war, then we changed it to department of defense,” the president said in the Oval Office last week.
Mr Hegseth has said that the Pentagon needs to prioritise “the warrior ethos”, and realign itself with “the war fighter”. In remarks in April he said: “We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind.”
The order allowed the Pentagon to use the department of war name in official correspondence, public communications and ceremonies, and permitted Hegseth to use the title secretary of war, the factsheet said.
Mr Trump, who has referred to Mr Hegseth as secretary of war on social media, said the title had been changed to defence secretary because “we became politically correct”.
The executive order would also instruct Mr Hegseth to recommend legislative and executive actions “required to permanently rename the US Department of Defense to the US Department of War”, according to the factsheet.
Last week, Mr Trump said Congress would “go along” with a name change.
A formal renaming to update signs and official materials at the Pentagon and throughout the US’s global military installations will probably come with a significant cost.
Legislation passed by Congress in 1947 merged the navy and war departments, along with the newly independent air force, into one entity called the National Military Establishment.
Headed by a civilian secretary of defence, it became the department of defence in 1949.
The offices of the top Republican and Democrat on the powerful Senate committee on armed services did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr Hegseth wrote “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on X on Thursday evening, reposting an article by Fox News, which was first to report the executive order. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
- Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
