President Donald Trump announced today his intention to sign an executive order to officially rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, seeking to revive the combative spirit that, according to him, was represented by the historical denomination used before 1947, when the entity bore precisely that name.
The resolution will allow the title “Department of War” to be used as a secondary designation in official communications, ceremonial events, and non-legally binding documents, while a legislative process is pushed forward to formalize the change permanently through a law in Congress. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been authorized to adopt the title “Secretary of War” and has been tasked with outlining the legislative and executive steps necessary to achieve a full renaming.
The measure, according to presidential advisers, seeks to foster a new “warrior ethos” and project a more combative image of U.S. military power, emphasizing that “defense” sounds passive compared to the strength of the term “war.”
The historic name of the department dates back to the creation of the U.S. state in 1789; however, after the reorganization of the armed forces in 1947 and 1949, under the National Security Act, the ministries were unified and “Defense” became the official nomenclature.
Although a definitive change requires congressional approval, it is expected to face less resistance given the Republican majority and the communications strategy being used. Nevertheless, critics have described the initiative as costly, unnecessary, and a distraction from more urgent military priorities, such as the modernization of capabilities or responding to emerging global threats.
