Donald Trump to rename Pentagon ‘Department of War’ 

Donald Trump is to rename the Pentagon as the ‘Department of War’ as part of his administration’s ‘warrior ethos’ (Picture: Getty Images)

Donald Trump is rebranding the US Department of Defense as the Department of War, the White House has announced.   

The president is due to sign an executive order today reverting to the agency’s original name, according to an official.   

Although the current stamp is set out in law, the move will introduce a ‘secondary title’, a White House document said.   

Trump’s administration is implementing a ‘warrior ethos’ within the Pentagon, and will introduce other phrases such as ‘Secretary of War’ for Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, according to the fact sheet.   

Speaking to Fox & Friends on Wednesday, Hegseth said: ‘We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War.

‘We’ve reestablished at the department the warrior ethos.  

Donald Trump wants to give the Department of Defense a more war-like image rather than a defensive-focused one (Picture: AP)

‘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.’  

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has claimed that his administration is implementing a ‘warrior ethos’ (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Department of War title was last used in the 1940s 

Trump has previously claimed the name is too ‘defensive.’  

Speaking to the media last month, he said the Department of War ‘was the name when we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything.’  

According to the White House document, the name change ‘conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve.’ 

But not everyone is convinced.

Navy combat veteran and retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly said on X: ‘Only someone who avoided the draft would want to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War.’

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