On September 5, 2025, President Donald Trump created an executive order to restore the title of the “Department of War.” Although the president doesn’t have the power to make a name change by himself, it will go through Congress to try and get passed.
The order directs all executive agencies and departments to recognize and accommodate secondary titles such as “Department of War,” “Secretary of War,” and “Deputy Secretary of War” for all public communications. Forbes Magazine shared a quote from Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, stating, “If we call it the Dept. of War, we’d better equip the military to actually prevent and win wars.”
Although this name change doesn’t seem to affect much, the claims Trump made against the military can seem like he is demeaning everybody who has served while it was still titled the Department of Defense. Saying things like “victories turned into more prolonged conflicts that often resulted in a ‘sort of tie’ once the War Department rebranded as the Defense Department,” gives a sense that maybe the military didn’t try hard enough, or they weren’t powerful enough to win a war with a different title.
According to Trump, the reason for this change was that “We want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive, too, if we have to be.” This “new” name does not come out of nowhere – the department used the same name until after World War II. Trump claims that after the new moniker, the United States’ global power directly decreased. He uses examples of the Korean War and the Vietnam War, which weren’t technically U.S. wars.
These wars are described as ”proxy wars,” meaning it was fought by countries that are not directly involved, but fight to help an ally or to promote their own interests and beliefs.
Trump is trying to “restore former glory,” but this also comes with many implications. For example, this might get people to think that the military was not good enough the past 70 years, even though many people lost their lives for America.
