‘Warrior ethos’: Trump to rebrand US defence 'Department of War'

US President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order renaming the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” a White House official says.

The order would authorise Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Defense Department, and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as “Secretary of War”, “Department of War” and “Deputy Secretary of War” in official correspondence and public communications, according to a White House fact sheet.

The move, which would put Trump’s stamp on the government’s biggest organisation and likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, would instruct Hegseth to recommend legislative and executive actions required to make the renaming permanent.

Since taking office in January, Trump has set out to rename a range of places and institutions, including the Gulf of Mexico, and to restore the original names of military bases that were changed after racial justice protests.

Department name changes are rare and require congressional approval, but Trump’s fellow Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the party’s congressional leaders have shown little appetite for opposing any of Trump’s initiatives.

The US Department of Defense was called the War Department until 1949, when Congress consolidated the Army, Navy and Air Force in the wake of World War II. The name was chosen in part to signal that in the nuclear age, the US was focused on preventing wars, according to historians.

Changing the name again will be costly and require updating signs and letterheads used not only by officials at the Pentagon in Washington DC, but also military installations around the world.

An effort by former President Joe Biden to rename nine bases that honoured the Confederacy and Confederate leaders was set to cost the Army $US39 million ($A60 million). That effort was reversed by Hegseth earlier in 2025.

The Trump administration’s government downsizing team, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, has sought to carry out cuts at the Pentagon in a bid to save money.

Critics have said the planned name change is not only costly, but an unnecessary distraction for the Pentagon.

Hegseth has said that changing the name is “not just about words - it’s about the warrior ethos”.

One of Trump’s closest congressional allies, Republican US House of Representatives Oversight Committee chair James Comer, earlier in 2025 introduced a bill that would make it easier for a president to reorganise and rename agencies.

“We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that ... Defense is too defensive. We want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive, too if we have to be,” Trump said in August.

Trump also mentioned the possibility of a name change in June, when he suggested that the name was originally changed to be “politically correct”.