President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, restoring the name used from 1789 until 1947.
The order designates Department of War as a secondary title, a step the administration says avoids the need for congressional approval for a formal renaming. “We won the first world war, we won the second world war, we won everything before that and in between,” Trump said at the signing ceremony. “And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to the Department of Defense.”
Symbolic changes are already underway. Visitors to the Pentagon’s defense.gov website are now redirected to war.gov.
The move follows a U.S. Navy airstrike earlier this week that killed 11 people on a small boat in international waters. The military described the vessel as carrying narcotics for Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, but legal experts have questioned whether the strike complied with international law.
Trump has frequently described himself as an “anti-war president” but argued that the original name better reflected America’s military role. He said the shift emphasizes strength and honesty about the department’s purpose, undoing post-World War II reforms that had rebranded the military as defensive.
Seven U.S. warships and a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine were reported to be moving toward the Caribbean following the strike, part of Trump’s broader effort to target Tren de Aragua.
Any permanent change to the Pentagon’s name requires congressional approval. Rep. Greg Steube of Florida and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, both Republicans, have introduced legislation to make the switch official.
“We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in the Oval Office. “We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So this war department, Mr. President, just like America is back.”
