President Donald Trump said Monday he may rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, returning to the agency’s title from before World War II.
The suggestion was made during meetings in the Oval Office with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. “We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,” Trump said, adding the change could come soon. “Probably that change is going to be made over the next week or so.”
The Department of War was established in 1789 to oversee the U.S. Army, and at times managed the Navy until the separate Department of the Navy was created in 1798. The department directed U.S. military operations through World War II.
In 1947, the National Security Act merged the War and Navy Departments into the National Military Establishment, led by a newly appointed secretary of defense. Two years later, Congress renamed the establishment the Department of Defense, consolidating all military branches under civilian leadership and emphasizing a posture of deterrence rather than warfare.
The War Department era was also marked by systemic racism, colonial expansion, and violence against Indigenous people and marginalized communities. During that period, the United States carried out Indian Wars and forced removals of Native Americans. Segregation existed in the armed forces until 1948, and Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps during World War II under War Department policies.
A proposal to rebrand the Pentagon would likely require congressional approval, as the Department of Defense’s name and structure are established by law. The 1947 act and its 1949 amendment remain the legal foundation for the department’s current configuration and civilian leadership.
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