It is happening. The Department of Defense will be renamed to the Department of War tomorrow after President Trump signs an executive order making it so. And the soon-to-be Secretary of War completely agrees with the name change.
Here’s more from Fox News:
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Friday to alter the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War — reverting to the agency’s former namesake, Fox News Digital has learned.
Both Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently have indicated that they want to change the name of the agency. It is one of several initiatives the Trump administration has spearheaded as part of its “warrior ethos” campaign within the Pentagon.
A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital Thursday that Trump would roll out the name change Friday. The executive order calls for using the Department of War as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with terms like the “Secretary of War” for Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet.
The order also instructs Hegseth to propose both legislative and executive actions to make the name change permanent.
Likewise, implementing the order will require modifications to public-facing websites and office signage at the Pentagon, including renaming the public affairs briefing room the “Pentagon War Annex,” according to a White House official. Other longer-term implementation projects are also in the works, the official said.
Hegseth, who Trump has already referred to on occasion as the “Secretary of War,” also expressed similar sentiments and said the change would reflect a broader, cultural shift within the Pentagon.
“We won WWI and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War. As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense,” Hegseth said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday. “We’re reestablished at the Department the warrior ethos. We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy. We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defense. We think words and names and titles matter. So we’re working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by.”
The U.S. employed the Department of War title for its military agency up until 1949 when it was renamed the Department of Defense, in accordance with a series of massive reforms included in the National Security Act of 1947.