On Friday, September 5, 2025, President Trump changed the name of the Defense Department to “Department of War.”
I am certain that our armed forces were just as competent and powerful for the past 75 years under the name “Department of Defense” as they were under the name “Department of War,” prior to 1949.
I am even more certain that the patriotism, heroism and, yes, “warrior ethos” of our men and women serving our country, under either name, has never faltered.
Whether while fighting for our country during the War of Independence, the Spanish-American War, or two World Wars, under the banner of the Department of War or while fighting in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and in so many other battles and conflicts under the name “Department of Defense,” the loyalty, sacrifice and fighting spirit of our troops or the readiness and resolve of “the Department” has never been questioned.
That is, until last Friday, when the Commander in Chief changed the name of the Department of Defense to “Department of War.”
According to the White House, the name “Department of War”:
• …reflects its unmatched power and readiness to protect national interests.
• …conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to “Department of Defense,” which emphasizes only defensive capabilities.
• …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.
In a news release by the new Department we read that Trump believes that “under the original War Department, the U.S. achieved military victories in both world wars; however, victories turned into more prolonged conflicts that often resulted in a ‘sort of tie’ once the War Department rebranded as the Defense Department.”
Additionally, Trump opines:
• “We won World War II. We won everything before, and as I said, we won everything in between…we were very strong, but we never fought to win. We just didn’t fight to win.”
• The name had been changed because the country “decided to go woke.”
• The country “could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct.”
The newly minted “Secretary of War,” Pete Hegseth, concurs. “We changed the name after World War II from the Department of War to the Department of Defense and…we haven’t won a major war since,” Hegseth said, adding, “Maximum lethality, not tepid legality; violent effect, not politically correct.” At least Hegseth concedes, “And that’s not to disparage our warfighters…”
Naturally, there is skepticism that this “rebranding” is just one more Trump “throwback, a restoration of tough-guy nomenclature” at a time “when deterrence is more critical than ever…” as David E. Sanger writes at the New York Times, pointing out that “President Trump and his defense secretary say they want to return to the era when America won wars. They largely ignore the greatest accomplishment of the past 80 years: avoiding superpower conflict.”
Defense officials have been critical – suspicious – of the name change.
In an article based on interviews with “more than half a dozen current and former defense officials” who were granted anonymity, Politico reports that “many expressed frustration, anger and downright confusion at the effort, which could cost billions of dollars for a cosmetic change that would do little to tackle the military’s most pressing challenges — such as countering a more aggressive alliance of authoritarian nations.”
A former defense official said, according to Politico:
This is purely for domestic political audiences…Not only will this cost millions of dollars, it will have absolutely zero impact on Chinese or Russian calculations. Worse, it will be used by our enemies to portray the United States as warmongering and a threat to international stability.
Of course, names are important. Referring to people’s names, it has been said that “they are windows into history, culture, and identity…offering profound insights into how societies function.”
The same could be said of names given to important bodies of society and government.
In the case of the Department of Defense/War, even more important than a name is what is in the hearts and minds of the civilians to whom the American people have entrusted the sacred responsibility of leading it.
That trust is certainly put to the test when we read that the commander in chief threatens the nation’s third-largest city with “Chipocalypse Now” in a social media meme featuring an image of Trump’s face imposed on the body of “Apocalypse Now” actor Robert Duvall, against a hellish background of helicopters zooming over a burning Chicago with the caption “I love the smell of deportations in the morning…Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
What are we, as Americans, to make of this?
Does it make our country safer?
Does it project strength, or hubris?
Does it improve the chances of a man desperate to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
