President Donald Trump proposed on Aug. 25 that his administration rename the Department of Defense to its previous name, the Department of War.
“Pete, you started off by saying ’the Department of Defense.' And somehow it didn’t sound good to me,” Trump said in the Oval Office, speaking to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, after signing executive orders on fighting crime, including in Washington.
“Defense. What are we, defense? Why are we defense? It used to be called the Department of War, and it had a stronger sound. And, as you know, we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything. Now we have a Department of Defense. We’re defenders. I don’t know.”
Hegseth, standing behind Trump, said the name change is on the way.
“That’s coming soon, sir,” he told Trump.
Trump said that “Department of War” sounds better than “Department of Defense.”
“Defense? I don’t want to be Defense only. We want defense, but we want offense too, if that’s OK,” he said, adding that “as Department of War, we won everything, we won everything. And I think we’re going to have to go back to that.”
Trump touted bringing an end to conflicts between India and Pakistan and the Congo and Rwanda.
