WASHINGTON — President Trump suggested Monday that he could change the name of the Department of Defense back to the Department of War — the moniker by which it was known for more than 150 years.
The president said he’s pursuing the reversal because the old name for the Cabinet-level agency has a “stronger sound” and is “much more appropriate.”
“We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “‘Defense’ is too defensive. We want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive, too if we have to be.”
“As Department of War, we won everything,” he added, referring to World Wars I and II. “And I think we’re going to have to go back to that.”
The War Department was known as such from 1789 to 1947, when the Army and Air Force departments were split by an act of Congress to form the National Military Executive with the already-existing Navy Department.
The National Military Executive was dubbed the Department of Defense two years later, in 1949.
Trump went off on the current title of the government agency when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth referred to it as the “Department of Defense” as he touted the military’s work securing the southern border and the National Guard’s participation in the DC crime crackdown.
“Pete, you started off by saying the Department of Defense, and somehow it didn’t sound good to me … why are we defense?” the president said.
“If you want to change it back to what it was when we used to win wars all the time, that’s OK with me,” he added.
Hegseth teased: “That’s coming.”
Later in the day, during his Oval Office meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Trump signaled that “everybody likes” the idea of going back to the Department of War and that an announcement would be made in the next week or so.
At least one lawmaker has already pledged to introduce legislation in support of renaming the Defense Department.
“I’m drafting a bill to restore the Department of War to its original name— the only name that captures the full range of America’s military capabilities,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote on X.
