Trump to rebrand US Defence Department as War Department

US President Donald Trump is expected to rebrand the Defence Department to the Department of War through an executive order on Friday, a move that the administration has said more accurately reflects the mission of the men and women serving in uniform.

“Restoring the name ‘Department of War’ will sharpen the focus of this Department on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to secure its interests,” according to a document describing the forthcoming order.

The administration had been teasing the change for weeks, with Trump telling reporters during an Oval Office meeting last month that the renaming would be coming very soon. On Thursday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said his job title as “may be a slightly different title tomorrow; we’ll see.”

But it was not clear if the President could unilaterally rename the department, which was created by Congress in 1789, as each iteration of its name has come about through legislation.

Also unclear is whether the move is intended as a full-scale renaming, or if the administration intends to leave much of the Defence Department’s historic signage intact and unchanged even if Mr Hegseth decides to call the agency the Department of War.

Based on the document describing the change, the administration may be seeking to circumvent congressional action by saying the action would use the Department of War “as a secondary title for the Department of Defence.” However, it would authorise Mr Hegseth and the department to “use secondary titles such as ‘Secretary of War,’ ‘Department of War,’ and ‘Deputy Secretary of War’ in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch,” the document says.

Congress established the agency to be led by a secretary of war. The bill was signed into law by President George Washington. Following World War II, the War Department was temporarily renamed the National Military Establishment. A 1949 amendment renamed the agency once again to its current name, the Department of Defense.

The last major military command renaming also occurred under Mr Trump, when then-Defence Secretary Jim Mattis announced in 2018 that US Pacific Command would be renamed US Indo-Pacific Command, to better reflect the importance of India’s role in U.S. defence, strategy in the East.

Official name changes, however, come with a hefty price tag. The blue seal of the Department of Defence” is on hundreds of installations and government buildings across the globe. Official signage, stationery and publications across the services may also need to be overhauled.

Under the Biden administration, an effort to rename military facilities honoring Civil War-era Confederates cost more than $US60 million, according to the renaming commission. When Mr Trump returned to office, Mr Hegseth undid much of that work, restoring the old names by identifying service members with last names similar to those of the Confederate honourees.

Sceptics of the move quickly pounced on the planned announcement.

“American military supremacy has eroded as China has sprinted to field combat forces that they hope can defeat the United States military in the Pacific. Changing the name of the Department of Defence won’t help with that,” said Brad Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies.

“Perhaps the significant amount of money spent making new signs, office placards and letterhead would be better used ensuring our warfighters have the training and weapons they need to accomplish the missions they are given and to return home to their families.”

Mr Hegseth, a former National Guard officer and Fox News personality, has been discussing the issue internally since March, said a person familiar with the matter, apparently inspired after a White House meeting at which Trump quipped, “you look more like a secretary of war.”