President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, calling the move a reversion to a time before America went “woke.”
The shift dovetails with Trump’s bid to project a more aggressive posture for the Pentagon by touting “lethality” and an emphasis on the “warfighter.” He said he would ask Congress to make the change formal but seek to implement the shift immediately.
“I think it’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now,” Trump said. “We won the first World War. We won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of Defense.”
According to the order, “Department of War” will be a secondary title for the Department of Defense, with Pete Hegseth being referred to as secretary of war and signs at the Pentagon being replaced, Fox News reported earlier. It directs Hegseth to seek legislative approval for a formal name change, which would undo a change made in 1949, Fox said.
Within minutes, the defense.gov website redirected to war.gov.
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