President Donald Trump will signal an govt order on Sept. 5 renaming the Division of Protection to its earlier title, the Division of Battle, senior administration officers confirmed on Sept. 4.
After Fox Information first reported on the announcement, Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth substantiated the identify change on X, writing, “DEPARTMENT OF WAR.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt additionally confirmed the announcement on X.
“Trump to rename Pentagon, restoring historic ‘Department of War’ in latest military move,” she wrote on Sept. 4.
The president had proposed returning to the Division of Protection’s authentic identify whereas signing govt orders within the Oval Workplace on Aug. 25.
“Pete, you started off by saying ’the Department of Defense.’ And somehow it didn’t sound good to me,” Trump stated, chatting with Hegseth.
“Defense. What are we, defense? Why are we defense? It used to be called the Department of War, and it had a stronger sound. And, as you know, we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything. Now we have a Department of Defense. We’re defenders. I don’t know.”
Trump had additionally floated the identify change whereas talking with reporters on the NATO Summit on June 25.
“You know, it used to be called Secretary of War,” Trump stated. “Maybe for a couple of weeks we’ll call it that because we feel like warriors.”
On the identical occasion, the president launched Hegseth as “secretary of war,” and prompt that the change to the present “secretary of defense” was as a result of “we became politically correct.”
“Maybe we’ll have to think about changing it. But we feel that way,” Trump stated.
Hegseth had additionally known as for altering again to the “Department of War” title previous to being named Trump’s Secretary of Protection.
“Sure, our military defends us. And in a perfect world it exists to deter threats and preserve peace,” he wrote in his 2024 memoir, “The War on Warriors—Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.”
“But ultimately its job is to conduct war. We either win or lose wars. And we have warriors, not ‘defenders.’ Bringing back the War Department may remind a few people in Washington, D.C., what the military is supposed to do, and do well.”
When it was first established in 1789, the U.S. Division of the Military was known as the Division of Battle. The company additionally had some accountability over the wartime Navy till the federal authorities created the Division of the Navy in 1798.
After merging the company with the Navy Division, Congress handed the Nationwide Safety Act of 1947, which created the place of Secretary of Protection and established the Nationwide Safety Council, the Joint Chiefs of Workers, and the U.S. Air Pressure.
Within the early twentieth century, the emergence of plane within the U.S. army led to the Military Air Service, Military Air Corps, and the Military Air Forces earlier than the Air Pressure grew to become its personal distinct service department in 1947.
The 1947 Nationwide Safety Act took the three distinct service department departments—the Division of the Military, the Division of the Navy, and the Division of the Air Pressure—and coordinated them by way of what was briefly referred to as the Nationwide Navy Institution, beneath the management of the secretary of protection.
The Nationwide Navy Institution was renamed the “Department of Defense” on Aug. 10, 1949, and absorbed the three army departments.
The Nationwide Safety Act of 1947 explicitly calls for the company to be known as the Division of Protection.
Jackson Richman contributed to this report.
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