President Donald Trump on Monday floated renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War.
Trump suggested reverting the Department of Defense back to its old name during a meeting at the White House with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.
“[Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth has been incredible with the, as I call it, the Department of War. You know, we call it the Department of Defense, but between us, I think we’re going to change the name,” the president said. “You want to know the truth, I think we’re going to have some information on that maybe soon.”
The United States previously had a War Department; it was established by President George Washington in 1789 and lasted until a reorganization of the department in 1947 by President Harry Truman. “Defense” was added to the moniker two years later.
The president elaborated further on the difference between the Department of Defense and the Department of War in the Oval Office.
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“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 with defenders,” Trump said.
“I don’t want to be defense only. We want defense, but we want offense, too, if that’s okay,” he continued, adding, “as Department of War, we won everything. We won everything. And I think we’re gonna have to go back to that.”
A reporter told Trump that officially renaming the Department of Defence would require an act of Congress. Trump replied that he did not think it would, but regardless, he guessed that Congress would approve such a name change if Congress is needed. GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said Monday that he would introduce legislation to codify the name change.
I’m drafting a bill to restore the Department of War to its original name—the only name that captures the full range of America’s military capabilitiespic.twitter.com/n1NjoEwBFZ https://t.co/4DeDDQfp3o
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) August 25, 2025
Trump has previously hinted at bringing the old name for the Defense Department back. In June, Trump joked with reporters that he would temporarily revert the Department of Defense to the Department of War after the successful U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.
“You know it used to be called secretary of war,” said Trump. “Maybe for a couple of weeks, we’ll call it that because we feel like warriors.”
Despite the apparent push to drop “Defense” from the Defense Department, Trump and the White House have touted his presidency as one of peace, going so far as to call Trump the “peacemaker-in-chief” for the conflicts and near-conflicts he has helped to solve since taking office in January.
