Donald Trump is set to sign another controversial executive order today (September 5).
The former president is no stranger to executive orders—he signed a flurry of them with his bold, unmistakable signature within hours of returning to office in January. Many have been unpopular, his so-called “big beautiful bill” being one example.
Now, he’s preparing to sign a measure that would rebrand the Pentagon for the first time in decades. Under the new order, the Department of Defense (DoD) would once again be called the Department of War, according to documents obtained by the BBC.
The order reportedly states: “The name ‘Department of War’ conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to ‘Department of Defense,’ which emphasizes only defensive capabilities.”
It also instructs Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to pursue legislative and executive actions to make the name change permanent.
Discussing the move, Hegseth told Fox News: “We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War. As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense.”
He added: “We’ve reestablished at the Department the warrior ethos. We want warriors—folks who 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.”
While Hegseth is fully behind the change, many Americans strongly disagree.
“This is so stupid and it’s going to make us a laughing stock in front of both our allies and our enemies,” one Twitter user fumed.
Another agreed: “Renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War, because it is more intimidating to our adversaries, is stupid.”
Others were baffled by the idea: “I don’t understand why he wants to do this? Just a whim?”
And one critic noted the financial implications: “Changing the name of DoD to Department of War is dumb for lots of reasons, but not least of which is it’s just a huge waste of money.”
Some even compared the proposal to Trump’s earlier decision to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” which his administration declared “official” back in January.
What do you think about the Department of Defense being renamed the Department of War?
Source: unilad.com