United States President Donald Trump is due to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War in a bid to rebrand the government agency with a more forceful image.
The name change is expected to be implemented in an executive order on Friday, according to The Associated Press news agency, quoting White House officials familiar with the rebranding effort.
The “Department of War” will become the secondary name for the Department of Defense until legislative action can make the name change permanent, according to an unreleased fact sheet.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” in a post on social media above a news story on the reported change.
Hegseth made no other comment.
DEPARTMENT OF WAR https://t.co/uyAZGiklRi
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) September 4, 2025
President Trump had said a name change would remind people of past US military victories in World War I and World War II, when the US was an emerging superpower.
“Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,” he told reporters late last month.
“Then we changed it to Department of Defense,” he said.
“Defense is too defensive. And we want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive too, if we have to be,” he said.
The Department of Defence was previously known as the “Department of War” from 1789 until a reorganisation of the US military at the end of World War II, which concluded in 1945.
It was then renamed the National Military Establishment following a merger with other departments in 1947, and the name was later amended to the Department of Defense.
Those name changes were made through an act of Congress.
The defence department is frequently referred to as just the “Pentagon”, after the unique shape of its headquarters near Washington, DC, or it is referred to by its initials, “DOD”.
US media reported that it is still unclear how Trump will make the name change permanent, but Defense Secretary Hegseth will be instructed to pursue legal and legislative means, according to reports.
Hegseth made remarks similar to Trump’s regarding the department’s name in an interview on the US channel Fox News, stating that his agency wants a “warrior ethos”.
“We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy,” he said.
“We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defence. We think words and names and titles matter. So, we’re working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by,” he said.
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