President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he intends to sign an executive order to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, a move that was roundly criticized by legal and military analysts.
The rebrand speaks to the "warrior ethos" that Trump has asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to restore in the military, according to reports. Trump has also previously expressed interest in the name change.
“As Department of War, we won everything. We won everything,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal last month.
Legal and military experts responded to Trump's planned rebrand on social media.
"The files must be really bad," former GOP congressman Adam Kinsinger posted on X. "Also the money allocated to department of defense… not the dept of war. But all in all it’s a pointless distraction that will be reversed in 3 years."
"Just complete idiocy," historian Kevin Kruse posted on Bluesky.
"Remember all the MAGA voters who thought they were getting an end to global interventionism?" geopolitics lecturer Stuart Hopper posted on X. "Another slap in the face delivered courtesy of TRUMP: The Department of War."
"Worth remembering IMO that the people who came up with the Department of Defense were not namby-pamby peaceniks; they were the hardened leaders who had just annihilated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and were gearing up to face down the Soviet empire," defense analyst Tom Shugart posted on X.
"Again, a reminder that the law of the United States creates and names executive departments, not the president at any given time," constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis posted on X. "The executive order is unlawful."
"We are living in the dumbest of times," Republicans Against Trump posted on X.
