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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Trump signs executive order rebranding Pentagon as the Department of | |
War | |
By Samantha Waldenberg, Haley Britzky, Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN | |
Updated: | |
6:15 PM EDT, Fri September 5, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to rebrand the | |
Pentagon as the “Department of War,” telling reporters in the Oval | |
Office it was a more “appropriate” name given the state of the | |
world. | |
“I think it’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of | |
where the world is right now. We have the strongest military in the | |
world,” Trump said, before signing the order. | |
The order authorizes the Secretary of Defense, the Department of | |
Defense and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as | |
“Secretary of War,” “Department of War,” and “Deputy | |
Secretary of War” in official correspondence, public communications, | |
ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive | |
branch, according to a fact sheet obtained by CNN. And almost | |
immediately, officials began to implement it. | |
Pentagon officials changed signage outside of Defense Secretary Pete | |
Hegseth’s office, and the department’s website got a revamp. The | |
old site, , is now rerouted to which displays “U.S. Department of | |
War” at the top. DOD — the acronym for Department of Defense — is | |
also replaced with DOW for Department of War in various headlines. | |
Hegseth, who joined the president in the Oval Office, said the name | |
change is “not just about renaming, it’s about restoring.” | |
Hegseth said the military will “go on offense, not just on defense” | |
and, reflected in the name change, the country will “raise up | |
warriors, not just defenders.” | |
The order also directs all executive departments and agencies to | |
recognize and accommodate the new secondary titles in internal and | |
external communications and instructs Hegseth to recommend actions, | |
both legislative and executive, to permanently rename the US Department | |
of Defense to the US Department of War, according to the fact sheet. | |
Though the fact sheet appeared to recognize Trump would need | |
Congress’s help to make the change permanent, Trump said Friday he | |
was uncertain of that. | |
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out, but I’m not sure | |
they have to,” he said. | |
The news about Friday’s order was first reported by . | |
The last time the department’s name was changed took an act of | |
Congress. | |
The Department of War, as it as once called, was first established by | |
President George Washington when he founded the country’s Army. But | |
the name was later changed in 1949 as part of a broader reorganization | |
of the military under President Harry Truman. | |
Truman signed the National Security Act in 1947, which merged the | |
Department of the Navy, the newly created Department of the Air Force, | |
and the Department of the Army — previously the Department of War, | |
— into one organization called the National Military Establishment, | |
under the civilian secretary of defense. The National Military | |
Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense in August 1949. | |
The effort to rename the Pentagon follows a number of similar steps by | |
Hegseth to change the names of bases and ships. He reversed a Biden-era | |
decision that had removed Confederate-era names of bases like Fort | |
Bragg and Fort Hood, reverting to but officially naming them after | |
different individuals with the same names. | |
In June, Hegseth the renaming of an oiler ship named after gay rights | |
activist and Navy veteran Harvey Milk. | |
This story has been updated with additional information. | |
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