Pentagon chief says name signals more offensive approach to US military, but change unofficial without change to law.
United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order changing the name of the Department of Defense to the “Department of War”.
In a ceremony from the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said the name change was part of a larger shift away from “woke” ideology within the department. He added it would beckon in a new age of military victory.
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Administration officials said the “Department of War” will be used in official White House correspondence and public statements, however, a more permanent change would require Congress to pass new legislation.
The Department of Defense had previously been called the Department of War from 1979 to 1947. The name change following World War II when Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947, which consolidated the branches of the US military under a single civilian-headed department.
Historians have said the name was also meant to signal an emphasis on preventing war amid the new threat of nuclear destruction.
After signing the executive order on Friday, Trump suggested the name change was in some way related to the US’s dearth of decisive military victories.
“So we won the first World War. We won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of Defense,” Trump said.
“We should have won everywhere. We could have won every war, but we we really chose to be very politically correct or woke,” he said.
Trump added he would bring the name change to Congress in hopes of codifying it into law.
‘Maximum lethality, not tepid legality’
Under the order, the US Secretary of Defense will also be referred to as the “Secretary of War”.
Speaking at the Oval Office, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the change was about “restoring the warrior ethos”.
“The War Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It’s going to fight to win, not not to lose,” he said.
“We’re going to go on offense, not just on defence. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct,” he said.
Trump has made several symbolic name changes since taking office, including dubbing the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America in White House usage.
He has also undone name changes of military sites originally named after Confederate officials.
The vows to take a more “war”-forward approach with the US military comes days after Trump announced a deadly strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in international waters in the Caribbean.
Trump and his top officials have vowed more extrajudicial strikes on alleged criminals, which they have dubbed “narco terrorists”.
Experts have said such strikes have scant legal basis and raise risks of civilians, including fishermen and migrants, being targeted.
Speaking on Friday, Trump said that boat traffic in the area of the strike, which killed 11, has been down since.
“I don’t even know about fishermen,” he said. “They may say, I’m not getting on the boat. I’m not going to take a chance.”
