Trump unveils 'Department of War' -- but Hill may have a say

John M. Donnelly and Caroline Coudriet, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 5, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to change the Department of Defense’s name to the Department of War, and Congress may soon consider weighing in on the proposal.

Not long after Trump signed the order, the Pentagon changed its official web address to war.gov. The page about Pete Hegseth is labeled Secretary of War, and references across the site to the Department of Defense have been replaced with the Department of War.

In remarks in the Oval Office, Trump said he would ask Congress to codify the change, but he suggested that congressional action wasn’t necessary to put it into effect, even though the name of the department is prescribed by law.

“We’re signing an executive order today, but we’ll find out” whether lawmakers need to codify the change, Trump said. “We’re going with it, and we’re going with it very strongly. There’s a question as to whether or not they have to. But we’ll put it before Congress.”

Some congressional Republicans have already filed bills to cement the name change in law. Democrats may push back as soon as next week, when both the House and Senate are expected to debate their fiscal 2026 NDAAs.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, who chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, used the occasion of Trump’s announcement to criticize the president on X for requesting what the Kentucky Republican considers an insufficient fiscal 2026 military budget.

“If we call it the Dept. of War, we’d better equip the military to actually prevent and win wars,” McConnell said. “Can’t preserve American primacy if we’re unwilling to spend substantially more on our military than Carter or Biden. ‘Peace through strength’ requires investment, not just rebranding.”

Going ‘woke’?

Trump’s order would reverse a change adopted shortly after World War II under the Truman administration.

Trump said the name change was needed to signal that the U.S. military is focused on winning armed conflicts as quickly and decisively as possible.

“We won the First World War, we won the Second World War, and we won everything before that and in between,” Trump said. “And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of Defense.”

Hegseth, whom Trump on Friday called the “Secretary of War,” and Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stood by the Resolute Desk as the president signed the order.

“We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense: maximum lethality, not tepid legality; violent effect, not politically correct,” Hegseth said.

Legislative maneuvers

Trump suggested last month that he was interested in a new term to describe the Pentagon.

“We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don’t think we even need that,” he said on Aug 25. “‘Defense’ is too defensive. We want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive too — if we have to be.”

The name change has the support of at least a handful of Republican lawmakers.

A proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act by Florida GOP Rep. Greg Steube would formally codify the name switch. It’s not clear, however, whether the amendment will be made in order when the House considers its version of the NDAA next week.

And Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in a post on X last month that he’s working on legislation to officially change the department’s title back to the “only name that captures the full range of America’s military capabilities.”

Likewise, it remains unclear which amendments the Senate might vote on next week.