Donald Trump is taking aim at the Pentagon’s name, and it’s not subtle. The former US President plans to rebrand the Pentagon, the nerve centre of America’s armed forces, as the Department of War, a nod to the country’s military past and a move critics say is pure theatre.
The “Department of War” isn’t a new invention. Between 1789 and 1947, that was the official name for the body overseeing the US military. It was only two years after the Second World War that the institution was rebranded as the Department of Defense, a title that has stuck ever since.
Trump is reportedly set to sign an executive order this Friday allowing the Pentagon to use “Department of War” as a secondary title. But there’s a catch, only Congress can make the change official and legal.
Trump and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have been flirting with this idea for some time. Hegseth even ran a social media poll in March to gauge public opinion on the potential rebrand. When news of the executive order first broke via Fox News, Hegseth didn’t hold back, posting boldly online: “DEPARTMENT OF WAR.”
Back in August, Trump explained his reasoning: “Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was the Department of War. Then we changed it to the Department of Defense.” And when reminded that a formal name change requires Congress, he brushed it off: “We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that.”
But this rebrand is only the latest in a series of controversial cultural shifts at the Pentagon under Hegseth’s leadership. Since taking office earlier this year, Hegseth has actively sought to purge what he sees as “woke culture” from the military. This includes ending diversity programmes, removing books from military academies, from Holocaust studies to a Maya Angelou memoir, and wiping thousands of websites that highlighted contributions by women and minority groups.
Hegseth has also overseen the removal of all transgender troops from the US military following Trump’s executive order, a process many critics have described as “dehumanising” and cruel.
Whether the Pentagon’s new title will ever officially stick remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Trump and Hegseth are determined to leave their mark, in more ways than one, on the face of America’s military.
