Trump set to order defence department to rename itself as 'department of war'

Donald Trump was expected to sign an executive order yesterday authorising the US Department of Defense to rebrand itself as the "department of war", the White House said, as part of an attempt to formalise the name change without an act of Congress.

- Hugo Lowell

The order will designate "department of war" as a "secondary title", an administration official said, as a way to get around the need for congressional approval to formally rename a federal agency.

But the order will instruct the rest of the executive branch to use the "department of war" name in internal and external communications, and allows the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and other officials to use "secretary of war" as official titles.

The order - seemingly in recognition of the limitation of the executive action - directs Hegseth to recommend legislative moves that could be taken to permanently rename the defence department.