In the Oval Office on Monday morning, President Donald Trump hosted the vice president, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, along with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, among others, to sign executive orders to increase security in Washington, D.C., and to push for the elimination of cashless bail nationwide. However, during the proceedings, Trump unexpectedly turned to Hegseth and advocated for the DOD to be renamed the “Department of War,” noting, “As the Department of War, we won everything, and I think we’re going to have to go back to that.” In an X poll held by Hegseth in March, the American people agreed.
The president called for Hegseth and Senior DOD officials to “take a vote” on it saying, “I don’t know if you, if you people want to, standing behind me, you take a little vote if you want to change it back to what it was when we used to win wars all the time, that’s OK with me, all right?” to which Hegseth responded “That’s coming soon, sir.”
.@POTUS “Pete, you started off by saying the Department of Defense. Somehow it didn’t sound good to me…
It used to be called the Department of War…” pic.twitter.com/4FeTsrfYwY
— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) August 25, 2025
President Trump broached the topic after Hegseth provided an update on the military’s missions on the border and in Washington, D.C., which he reported has improved the morale of the U.S. troops. He said, “Mr. President, let me tell you, the morale of the troops, getting out there, talking to them, they love this mission. They’re grateful to be doing it, whether they’re National Guard or other state National Guards.”
After comparing the success of Operation Midnight Hammer, the bombing raid on the Iranian nuclear sites Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan in June, favorably against the failed rescue attempt of American hostages from Iran under President Jimmy Carter and the failed withdrawal from Iran under President Joe Biden, Trump told the secretary:
Pete, you started off by saying the Department of Defense, and somehow it didn’t sound good to him, you know, it didn’t sound good, defense. What do we defend? Why are we defense?
So, it used to be called the Department of War, and it had a stronger sound, and as you know, we won World War One, we won World War Two, we won everything. Now we have the Department of Defense with defenders. I don’t know if you, if you people want to, standing behind me, you take a little vote if you want to change it back to what it was when we used to win wars all the time, that’s OK with me, all right.
Hegseth replied, “That’s coming soon, sir.” The president continued:
You, you let me know if you want to do it. I think Department of War, it just sounded very…. he said, ‘Sir, on behalf of the Department of Defense,’ Defense? I don’t wanna be defense only. We want defense, but we want offense too. If that’s OK. So, you’ll make a decision.
But you know, as Department of War, we won everything, we won everything, and I think we’re going to have to go back to that.
In the meantime, I’ve stopped all of these wars. I’ve stopped them. The big one would have been India and Pakistan, but we stopped them all. We stopped three wars. Go to Africa, they like to say, oh, you know, OK, I love black people, and they, and I did great with the vote with black people, but they say, they’re racist, he’s a racist. I said, really, for 35 years, the war raged between Rwanda and the Republic of the Congo, and it was a vicious war. Nine million people were killed with machetes, largely hatchets, machetes, that went on for 30, more than 30 years, 34, 35 years, and I stopped it.
WATCH:
As reported by USA Today, President Trump discussed renaming the Department of Defense in June, shortly after introducing Hegseth at a NATO meeting in the Netherlands as his “secretary of war.” He noted at the time that the name of the “War Department,” so named before 1949, is still visible on the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, where it was headquartered before the Pentagon’s completion. The name was changed in a 1949 amendment to the National Security Act of 1947, which also reorganized the Army, Navy, and the newly formed Air Force.
“Then we became politically correct and they called it Secretary of Defense,” Trump said. “Maybe we’ll have to think about changing it. But we feel that way.”
Better name?
Have my thoughts…welcome yours. #PeoplesPentagon
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) March 22, 2025
The defense secretary alluded to this during a Turning Point USA event in Tampa, FL, in July when he remarked, “The Defense Department, or maybe soon to be the Department of War…” to resounding cheers.
. @SecDef At the Defense Department (soon to be the Department of War), we lead the BIGGEST PEACE DEPARTMENT IN THE WORLD.
Our job is to be strong, ready and lethal so that you NEVER have to use us. pic.twitter.com/VcPK1iOXaQ
— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) July 11, 2025
He continued, “…for all the right reasons. We lead the biggest peace department in the world. Our job is to be strong, and ready, and lethal so that you never have to use us. And if you use us: our capabilities are so overwhelming, our threat so looming that we’re able to conclude that mission swiftly and violently to the interests of the United States, or not have to use us at all. So that peace is preserved and deterrence sticks.”
Hegseth has held this view since at least 2024, when he wrote in his memoir “The War on Warriors”: “Ultimately it’s (the Department of Defense’s) job is to conduct war. We either win or lose wars. And we have warriors, not ‘defenders,’” per the San Antonia Express-News. He wrote at the time, “Bringing back the War Department may remind a few people in Washington, D.C., what the military is supposed to do, and do well.”
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s military.
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