Trump moves to rebrand Pentagon as the Department of War

Formally restoring the former name would require an act of Congress.

- By Curis MEGERIAN, SEUNG Min Kim AND KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

PRESIDENT TRUMP complained that the Defense Department's name, established in 1947, was "woke." There already have been cosmetic shifts at the agency.

After months of campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize, President Trump sent a sharply different message Friday when he signed an executive order aimed at rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War.

Trump said the switch was intended to signal to the world that the United States was a force to be reckoned with, and he complained that the Department of Defense’s name, established in the aftermath of World War II, was “woke.”

“I think it sends a message of victory. I think it sends, really, a message of strength,” Trump said of the change as he authorized the Department of War as a secondary title for the Pentagon.

Congress has to formally authorize a new name, and several of Trump’s closest supporters on Capitol Hill proposed legislation earlier Friday to codify the new name into law.

But already there were cosmetic shifts. The Pentagon’s website went from “defense.gov” to “war.gov.” Signs were swapped around Hegseth’s office as employees watched. Trump said there would be new stationery, too.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom Trump has begun referring to as the “secretary of war,” said at the signing ceremony that “we're going to go on offense, not just on defense,” using “maximum lethality” that won't be “politically correct.”