President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order authorizing the Defense Department to use “Department of War” as an official secondary title. He has revived the historic name that was in use 75 years ago. It’s a move supporters say brings long-overdue honesty to what the department actually does, but that leftists found something new to criticize him about.
The order, Trump’s 200th since returning to office, authorizes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his team to use titles such as “Department of War,” “Secretary of War,” and “Deputy Secretary of War” in all communications, ceremonies, and non-statutory documents. Alongside the announcement, the administration launched War.gov, a new portal that mirrors the Pentagon’s existing website but embraces the revived name.
In a White House fact sheet, the administration made the case plainly: “‘Department of Defense’ emphasizes only defensive capabilities. ‘Department of War’ conveys strength, resolve, and America’s readiness to protect its interests by any means necessary.”
Trump, speaking before the signing, said the change was about restoring clarity. “Under the Department of War, the United States won two world wars,” he noted. “Since changing the name to ‘Defense,’ America has been bogged down in drawn-out conflicts that end in stalemate. Words matter.”
Hegseth, standing alongside the president, drove the point home. “This is not just a cosmetic shift,” he said. “It’s about purpose. The War Department wins wars. It does not exist to manage decline, it exists to deliver victory.”
Critics have long noted that the Pentagon’s missions go far beyond “defense” — from conducting overseas combat operations to projecting American power worldwide. The revived name acknowledges that reality in a way that is more transparent with the American people.
The “Department of War” dates back to Aug. 7, 1789, when Congress created the office under President George Washington. For more than 150 years it oversaw the Army and later worked alongside the Navy and Air Force until the 1947 National Security Act rebranded it as the Department of Defense.
Some of the most famous secretaries of war went on to even higher office, including James Monroe, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Howard Taft, who served in office when Alaska became a territory.
The announcement immediately sent the Left into paroxysms of outrage. Liberal commentators and Democratic lawmakers accused Trump of saber-rattling, nationalism, and “dangerous symbolism.” Online, progressive activists denounced the launch of War.gov as a “provocation.”
Conservatives, however, see the reaction as more evidence of Trump Derangement Syndrome, he reflexive opposition to anything the president does.
“Only the Left could be offended by calling something what it actually is,” one Alaska veteran told Must Read Alaska. “The Pentagon fights wars. Trump just has the honesty to say it out loud.”
This country is AT WAR!!! Call it what it is. There is no time to pander to those who might get their feelings hurt by the word war!!!
The USA, post-World War II, is ALWAYS at war.
Gotta keep those military-industrial complex profits flowing!
Department of Internal War.
You can’t accuse Trump of being dishonest in this name change!
Words are important. The change by law in 1949 to Department of Defense was reactionary to two world wars. If one could ask Patton or Lemay they would say War, not Defense. That is why Patton was minimized and Lemay ignored regarding how to defeat the Japs. Lemay was not even consulted on the nukes and one can bet no one told Truman about the Lemay strategy, which was to fire bomb Japan into the stone age.
By the way, General Lemay reflected that if we had lost the war he would be hung for war crimes. To the victors belong the spoils.
Im am also a veteran….
When you (volunteer)
To serve your country
one is prepared for war
“supporters say brings long-overdue honesty to what the department actually does”
Exactly a long overdue name change, our permanent government engages in continuous wars overseas and loses all of them.
The “Department of Losing Wars” would be more accurate, but being open and honest is not a trait of our government post Eisenhower.
Lets do a quick checkup here:
Did Syrah invade or attack the US? No, but we’re STILL engaged in a war there.
Did Libya invade or attack the US? No, but it was our planes, our ground crews, our special ops, and our state department that overthrew their government and turned the whole of North Africa into a gigantic human trafficking and sex slave market. My own brother in law was a participant in that mission, so don’t tell me I am imagining it.
Did Iran attack the US? No, but we semi-regularly do all kinds of crap to that country and have a pretty strong tradition of that which extends about 100 years.
Did Iraq attack the US or have weapons of mass destruction? The last 24 years of hindsight prove that our own “Department of Defense” lied their pants off to invade that country and over throw “evil dictator” Saddam Hussein at our taxpayer expanse, and with the blood and sanity of our own brothers and sisters.
If we can all look back with honesty at the last few decades of military conquests in which our country has engaged, would you seriously assert that we’ve been “Defending” ourselves? Or can you finally admit that maybe we are the ones doing the aggressing? Department of War is an apt name because that’s what it actually does. If everyone is perfectly fine with that, then just accept it.
Dee, you did a good start on the list.
Don’t forget the dismemberment of Yugoslavia followed by Kosovo.
In Syria we installed an actual ISIS “government” with a head cutting terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head. He did brush out the gummuks or lice from and trimmed his beard. But his terrorists have been killing Christians, Alawites, Druze and Jews using our weapons.
We call al Jordanni a leader and put a bounty on Maduro. Starting another war. The irony of Iran is they have an ancient Jewish community with Synagogues and Parlimentary representation. We never got over the Iranians threw out the all powerful Shah and his dreaded terror police SAVAK, because he was our dictator.
And we can’t ignore launching a war against Russia literally destroying Ukraine and getting 1.8 million of their men killed off in the process. Launching missiles into Russia, drones on their nuclear bombers. And we have lost that one too. It just takes the prize of being the most destruction and loss of life we caused. And most dangerous for the potential triggering of a nuclear war.
For many years, I have been saying that there is precious little “defense” in US military spending and operations (aside from always, ALWAYS defending Israel, as if it were the 51st US state). Most of what the US military engages in is imperialistic OFFENSE, not defense. Trump is only being honest here.
Agree.
The last performance with the Iron Dome we provided failing, and Israel getting their rear ends kicked, with Israel groveling for a ceasefire was a pathetic “defense”.
Israel is better off building mutually beneficial relations with its’ neighbors in peace than relying on us defending their territorial expansion ambitions. When the billions we pay Egypt, Jordan and the gaggle of Arab Sheikdoms end, Israel is finished. You can only keep obedient dictators in power so long. And our ability of printing paper dollars is not endless.
The last time the United States of America declared war as required by our Constitution was in May of 1942 against Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Since then we have been involved in numerous conflicts without Constitutional sanction. It is appropriate that we change that policy. Renaming the Department of Defense is an appropriate start. We need to stop getting engaged in so many of these overseas entanglements and deployments that are helping to bankrupt us morally and financially.
A rose by any other name is still a rose.
Might as well change it, since the end of the Korean War, we haven’t defended squat. But we’ve certainly started quite a few fights through our foreign schitt-stirring resulting in blowback. So yeah, either the Dept. of War or the Dept. of Sowing International Hate & Discontent.
Col. Ralph Peters wrote in the NY Post in 2017: “…in warfare there’s no substitute for killing your enemy and all those who support him. And you keep on killing until the enemy quits unconditionally or lies there dead and rotting.”
The only war the US has won since 1945 was the Cold War under President Reagan (even if Bush and Clinton then failed to capitalize on that victory, opening the door to Putin). Time after time, the military/industrial deep state told the American public that each military action was a “limited” event – from which we always finally just walked away.
It is so refreshing after 75 years of this government BS to hear Secretary Hegseth say that wars should only be fought if the objective is to WIN.