Featured Image Credit: YouTube/ABCNews
Topics: US News, Donald Trump, Politics, History
Ella Scott
People are up in arms after Defense Secretary Pete Hasgeth explained why the Trump administration elected to change the Pentagon’s name after almost eight decades.
On Friday (September 5), US President Donald Trump, 79, signed his latest and subsequent 200th executive order (E.O.) - a directive renaming the Department of Defense (DoD) to ‘The Department of War’.
“We won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything before that and in between, and then we decided to go woke, and we changed the name to DoD. So, we’re going Department of War,” the businessman explained.
“I think it's a much more appropriate name, in light of where the world is right now," Trump said in the Oval Office.
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"It sends a message of victory.”
Trump added that his agency ‘know how to rebrand without having to go crazy’.
The move restores the name the agency, colloquially known as the Pentagon, last held in 1949, according to Sky News.
Historians said the name was changed to show the US was focused on preventing further conflict after the Second World War.
Announcing his take on the name alteration, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 45, said that the newly rebranded ‘War Department’ is ‘is going to fight to win, not not to lose.’
“We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality. Not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We’re gonna raise up warriors, not just defenders.”
“Mr President, this War Department - just like America - is back.”
He added the decision will hopefully ‘set the tone for the country’.
In a further update posted to social media, Hegseth wrote: “The motto of my first infantry platoon was: “Those who long for peace, must prepare for war.”
“The War Department will be prepared—every day & in every way—to ensure our citizens live in peace. Peace through strength.”
According to a fact sheet, Trump’s executive order authorizes Hegseth to refer to himself as ‘Secretary of War’ in all official communications, as per Politico.
This has seemingly already been actioned, with a viral 12-second video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, showing a door plaque with his new title.
The fact sheet also stated that the Department of War will serve as a secondary name, which may allow Hegseth to implement the action without having to actually broach law changes with Congress.
Trump and Hesgeth’s actions have set the internet ablaze, with experts and social media critics alike having their say.
“It is a very dangerous environment,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said, as per Politico.
“For the president and the secretary of defense to spend time and energy [on a] distraction from what we need to do—to focus on the readiness of our troops who are serving—[is] nothing more than an effort to distract from other issues that are going on in the country.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey said the renaming was a childish idea, adding: "Americans want to prevent wars, not tout them.”
Meanwhile, one X user typed: “I’m a vet and strong supporter of you and this administration. I do not like the change. Makes it seem we are in business for the sake of war. I do not like war. Been there. Do not recommend.”
“Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War? Let’s go improve them all. Treasury Secretary → Master of Coin. National Security Advisor → Lord of Whispers. Secretary of the Navy → Master of Ships. Attorney General → Keeper of Justice,” joked someone else.
Another commented: “Kind of scary, are we preparing for the War??”
“Something tells me that they were prepared for this change,” wrote a fourth.
The Pentagon's website changed to war.gov late on Friday, along with the headline 'U.S. Department of War'.