❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to restore the historic name “Department of War” as a secondary title for the Department of Defense.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and the Department of Defense.
💬KEY QUOTE: “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.” – President George Washington
🎯IMPACT: The order aims to project strength, sharpen the military’s focus, and signal America’s readiness to secure its interests by force if necessary.
President Donald J. Trump has signed an Executive Order to restore the historic name “Department of War” as a secondary title for the Department of Defense. The order allows the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense, and subordinate officials to use titles such as “Secretary of War,” “Department of War,” and “Deputy Secretary of War” in official contexts. It further directs all executive departments and agencies to recognize and accommodate these secondary titles in communications.
The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, was instructed to recommend legislative and executive actions to permanently rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War. President Donald J. Trump believes that the name “Department of War” better reflects the military’s power and readiness to advance the national interest offensively as well as defensively. The ‘Department of War’ name dates from 1789 and was the department’s moniker during historic American victories in conflicts such as the First World War and Second World War.
President George Washington, in his First Annual Address to Congress on January 8, 1790, stated, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.” Citing this quote as justification for the name change, the Trump White House argued, “Our founders knew that projecting strength would be the best way to ensure that we would rarely need to use it.”
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) September 5, 2025
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