President orders name change from DoD to Department of War

On September 5, President Donald Trump signed an executive order rebranding the Department of Defense (DOD) to the Department of War as a secondary title.

The order marks the 200th signed by the president since taking office in January, and authorizes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and DOD officials to use secondary titles like "Department of War," "Secretary of War" and "Deputy Secretary of War" in public communications, official correspondence, ceremonial contexts and non-statutory documents within the executive branch, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

Additionally, the executive order directs all executive agencies and departments to "recognize and accommodate these secondary titles in internal and external communications," as well as instructing Hegseth to recommend executive and legislative actions that would be required to permanently rename the department within 60 days.

To officially change the name of any Cabinet agency requires an act of Congress. An amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would formally change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

Prior to signing the executive order, Trump said, "This is something [we've] thought long and hard about; we've been talking about it for months."

“We’re going Department of War,” Trump said during an Oval Office signing ceremony. “I think it's a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.”

Standing alongside Trump, Hegseth said the name change signifies the department will focus on “maximum lethality, not tepid legality; violent effect, not politically correct.”

The War Department was originally established by Congress on August 7, 1789, the same year the Constitution was ratified. It was later renamed the Board of War and Ordnance in 1776 during the Revolutionary War. Nine years later, the Department of the Navy was established as its own Cabinet agency.

During the Civil War, the department was responsible for recruiting, training, supply, medical care, transportation and the pay of two million soldiers.

The department remained so named for over 150 years. After World War II, then-President Harry Truman supported a sweeping reorganization of the country’s national security agencies, arguing the war demonstrated that the existing structure was lacking unity and cohesiveness. Following that mandate, Congress approved the reorganization with the 1947 National Security Act. The law replaced the Department of War with the Department of the Army; created the Air Force; and established a new umbrella organization to oversee the departments of the Army, Air Force and Navy.

Originally called the National Military Establishment, the name of the umbrella agency was changed to the Department of Defense with a 1949 amendment to the National Security Act.

The former DOD website now reflects the name change as its new online address is www.war.gov