The White House announced on Thursday, September 4th, that it will rename the U.S. Department of Defense the Department of War.
Although the department’s official name is set by law, U.S. president Donald Trump is allowing his administration to use a new name as a “secondary title” through an executive order, according to a White House document.
It was not immediately clear when Trump planned to sign the order, but his public schedule for Friday, September 5, said he would be signing executive orders in the afternoon.
Trump claimed the Defense Department’s current title was too “defensive.” He’d already told reporters on August 25th that the Department of War “was the name when we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything.”
The proposed rebranding has echoes of Trump’s authorization of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, which ratified the creation of the United States Space Force.
