U.S. President Trump stated on the 25th that he will rename the Department of Defense back to the 'Department of War' in 'about a week or so.'
According to foreign media reports, Trump made this statement while jointly meeting reporters with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung in the Oval Office of the White House. He said, “(U.S. Defense Secretary) Pete Hegseth is doing an excellent job at what I call the ‘Department of War.’ You know, we call it the ‘Department of Defense’ now, but between us, I think we will change the name.”
“If you want to know the truth, I think we will get some related information very soon,” Trump also said, “This renaming may be completed in about a week or so.”
Trump revealed that in order to change the name, he has been communicating with everyone, and “everyone likes this name.”
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly hinted at the possible restoration of the 'Department of War.' On June 25, at a press conference following the NATO summit, Trump referred to Hegseth as the 'Secretary of War' and said that in the coming weeks he would continue to use that title, because “we feel like warriors.”
In March this year, Hegseth proposed restoring the Defense Department's historic name, 'Department of War,' which sparked a lot of controversy.
Department of War Dates Back to Washington’s First Term
The Department of War, which oversaw the Army, can be traced back to President George Washington’s first term. But in the late 1790s, Congress established an independent Department of the Navy, responsible for the emerging Navy and later the Marine Corps. These two departments operated independently for more than a century.
In 1947, former President Truman pushed for the consolidation of the various branches into a single Department of Defense. He emphasized in Congress that this move would help reduce costs and strengthen national security. Some believe that Truman aimed to give the Secretary of Defense more centralized power over the different services, especially the still highly independent Navy at the time.