A department by any other name | Trump wants to rename DOD ‘Department of War’

The cost is so far uncertain but will likely be millions of dollars for President Donald Trump‘s plan to rename the Department of Defense (DOD).

Trump will issue an executive order to change the name to the Department of War, which was the name until the 1940s, as reported by Forbes. At the time, all departments of the United States military, including the Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy and Army, were consolidated into one agency after World War II.

In 1949, an act of Congress changed the department’s name to the DOD when the National Security Act was amended.

Another act of Congress is necessary to change the name back, and Trump will direct Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to “recommend actions” so that the name change is permanent. The Department of War will become the department’s secondary title as will Hegseth’s title as Secretary of War.

The Department of War was established by President George Washington in 1789.

UNC Professor of Military History Richard H. Kohn told The New York Times that changing the department’s name after WWII was to convey an image of peace as the Cold War began. According to Kohn, the name change “was to communicate to America’s adversaries and the rest of the world that America was not about making war but defending the United States, and saying that if that requires war, there are four major armed services.”

Trump’s changing the name is to be more “politically correct” in 2025.

Congress received a report from the Naming Commission in 2022 in regard to changing the names of all military assets that honor Confederate leaders and the estimated cost was $62.5 million.