In a random move, President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order that will rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, in an effort to instill a tough image for America’s military, The Associated Press reported.
The plans were announced by an anonymous White House official ahead of the public announcement, scheduled for September 5. However, he can’t change the name formally without legislation that would need to come from a request from Congress — something Trump initially claimed he was unaware of. Before that happens, the Republican president will authorize the Pentagon to use “secondary titles” so the department can go by its original name.
Former Fox News host and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth seemingly supports the change. He posted “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on X following news of the announcement.
History tells us that the Department of War was created to oversee the Army, Navy and Marine Corps in 1789 when the U.S. Constitution took effect. In 1947, two years after World War II ended, President Harry Truman consolidated all armed forces under a single agency, thereby establishing the Department of Defense by law.
The new name attempt is the latest from Hegseth to make cultural changes to the Pentagon since taking office. Focusing on eliminating “woke culture,” the result has been the removal of hundreds of books in the military academies, including literature on the Holocaust and a Maya Angelou memoir. He also scrubbed websites honoring contributions by women and minority groups.
As Hegseth celebrated the potential name change, former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner proposed a different idea: cutting funding to the war department.
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Source: Black Enterprise
