President Trump said Monday he is ready to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War, restoring a designation not used since 1947.
Mr. Trump said he would likely bring back the Pentagon’s more forceful name in about a week.
The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have pledged to reestablish the military’s “warrior ethos” and have often bemoaned the name change made after the end of World War II.
The name change, however, would likely require an act of Congress since the department was created with a law.
Mr. Hegseth was in the Oval Office making remarks on another topic when Mr. Trump said, “Pete, you started off by saying the Department of Defense, and somehow it didn’t sound good to me.”
He mused about the implications of the department’s name.
“It didn’t sound good — defense. Why are we on defense? So it used to be called the Department of War, and it had a stronger sound,” Mr. Trump said. “And as you know, we won World War I. We won World War II. We won everything. Now we have a Department of Defense. We’re defenders.”
The president then addressed the gathering of senior administration officials standing behind him, saying that if they largely agreed to it, swapping Defense for War would be OK.
“That’s coming. You let me know if you want to do it. I think Department of War, it just sounded better,” he said. “We want defense, but we want offense too, if that’s OK. So you’ll make a decision. But you know, as Department of War, we won everything.”
The proposed name change riled up Mr. Trump’s left-wing critics, who took to social media to blast the idea.
Political commentator Adam Schwarz called the move “a disturbing signal on future military and foreign policy.”
“The US renamed the ’Department of War’ to ’Department of Defence’ in 1947 to distance itself from the language of aggression, reflecting the post-WW2 global shift away from imperialism,” he wrote on liberal social media app Blue Sky.
Steve Benen, an MSNBC producer, wrote on his blog that Mr. Trump’s view of history was “absurd,” and declared that political correctness had nothing to do with replacing ‘war’ with ‘defense.’
Ed Greenberger, a former news anchor and frequent detractor of Mr. Trump, contrasted the president’s push for a Nobel Peace Prize with his goal to rebrand the Defense Department.
He wrote on X: “MAGA: Trump is the peace president! The only president who’s never started a war! Trump: I don’t want a Department of Defense. I want to go on offense. I want a Department of War.”
Another voice on social media accused the president of sending “clashing messages.”
“He’s on a World Peace quest, doesn’t want to use any sticks to increase pressure on Putin, who invaded Ukraine, but now resorts to renaming the DOD as the Department of War to sound tough. Actions matter, not silly spin word games like this,” this critic said.
