Trump proposes renaming the Department of Defense to the War Bureau
“We want to be offensive too,” President Trump suggests renaming the Department of Defense to the previous Department of War title.
The 47th US president was scheduled to sign an executive order on Friday, September 5th, to change the name of the US Department of Defense’s “War Bureau.”
The move, confirmed by the White House after Donald Trump proposed changing his name to reporters last week, will bring back names that were abandoned during the 1947 cabinet reorganization. The intent is to reflect what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses called the Trump administration’s “effort to instill a warrior spirit within the entire nation’s military.”
“It used to be called the Department of War, but it had a stronger sound,” Trump said.
A White House summary of the order obtained by USA Today said the move would restore the “war division” as the secondary name of the division. The order, according to the White House, allows secondary titles such as “war chief,” “war bureau,” and “war bureau chief,” such as official communications, public communications, and ritual contexts.
If approved, the White House reported that the executive department and agency must recognize and change the DOD name as the “war division” of internal and external communications.
But is it legal for Trump to rename a long-standing institution created to protect and protect Americans?
Here’s what you need to know about Trump’s plans and when and when it can be implemented:
Is it legal for Trump to change the Pentagon’s name?
Yes, but caution is required.
Under federal law, Trump cannot unilaterally change his name through executive orders. The president must be approved by Congress.
What year was the dog previously known as the “Ministry of War”?
For more than 150 years, the Department of Defense was called the “War Bureau,” but was renamed in the late 1940s following World War II and the integration of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force into a single agency.
Lawmakers officially rebranded the agency as the Department of Defense in 1949.
According to previous USA Today, another act of Congress is required to return the name to the Department of War.
Before Trump’s announcement, Jamal Green, a professor at Columbia Law School, told the New York Times it was unclear whether the name change would take effect anytime soon.
“The president has a clearer power to order geographical name changes because it is used in the United States,” the outlet reported.
It’s not the first time Trump has signed an executive order directing the federal government to change the name of something. In January he historically renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America because he said it had a “beautiful ring” in his name.
Contribution: Joey Garrison of USA Today
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter at USA Today. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at x @nataliealund
