President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order on Friday resurrecting the Department of Defense’s prior moniker, the Department of War.
The order will apply “Department of War” as a secondary title to the Pentagon under the Department of Defense. It will also add the title “secretary of War” to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet reviewed by Fox News.
Hegseth is also expected to draft legislation and potential executive orders that would officially change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.
Hegseth appeared to welcome the news on Thursday evening, posting on X after news of Trump’s impending order broke: “DEPARTMENT OF WAR.”
DEPARTMENT OF WAR https://t.co/uyAZGiklRi
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) September 4, 2025
Hegseth said Wednesday that the name change would reflect a broader cultural shift that the Trump administration has brought to the U.S. military.
“We’re reestablished at the department the warrior ethos. We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy. We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defense. We think words and names and titles matter. So we’re working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by,” Hegseth said in an interview on Fox News.
The president has floated the name change before. Last month, Trump strongly suggested that he planned to move ahead with the name change during a press conference in the Oval Office.
“[Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth has been incredible with the, as I call it, the Department of War. You know, we call it the Department of Defense, but between us, I think we’re going to change the name,” the president said. “You want to know the truth, I think we’re going to have some information on that maybe soon.”
The Department of Defense was previously called the Department of War, first established by President George Washington in 1789. The department carried the name “War” until President Harry Truman reorganized the federal government in 1947. The Department of Defense was so named two years later.
“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 with defenders,” Trump said on August 25.
“I don’t want to be defense only. We want defense, but we want offense, too, if that’s okay,” he continued, adding, “as Department of War, we won everything. We won everything. And I think we’re gonna have to go back to that.”
GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said last month that he would introduce legislation to codify changing the name officially to the Department of War.
