Trump, Hegseth float renaming Defense Department to Department of War

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said plans to rename his agency as the Department of War are “coming soon,” but it remains unclear whether the executive branch can make such a move without congressional permission.

During a White House press event on Monday, Hegseth spoke about the deployment of National Guard troops throughout Washington, D.C., and along the southern U.S. border. President Donald Trump responded to the remarks by complimenting the service members but complaining that the Department of Defense name “didn’t sound good” to him.

“Department of Defense, I don’t want to be defense only,” he continued. “We want defense, but we want offense, too.

“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.”

The United States used the Department of War moniker for its military bureaucracy from 1789 to 1947. In 1949, it was changed to the current Department of Defense name amid massive restructuring of the military services.

That change came as a result of the National Security Act of 1947, approved by the House and Senate, which also established the Secretary of Defense post. It’s unclear if changing the name of the military apparatus would lead to objections or litigation from Congress.

But Trump has frequently mentioned the idea of reverting to the war name in the past, and has referred to Hegseth as “Secretary of War” on several occasions.

His administration has also been aggressive in other areas of reshaping the federal government, including shuttering a host of agencies and significantly cutting the federal workforce end strength.

But the White House has proposed increasing the number of active-duty troops in the military amid the other cuts, arguing that they are needed for ensuring national security into the future.