President Donald Trump declared his administration would "probably" change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, and panelists on "CNN This Morning" tried to make sense of the move.
The department's name was changed in 1947, when the National Defense Act reorganized U.S. military and intelligence services following World War II, leading to the formation of the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency, but Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have often lamented the move away from what they call the department’s “warrior ethos."
"I think it's to show strength," said Republican strategist Ashley Davis. "I mean, I think it's messaging. I mean, I don't know how I – this obviously has been kind of bubbling up for a while. I'm not sure, yeah, I actually think he may have even talked about it on the campaign, but it's kind of the strength, um, message."
Host Audie Cornish noted the move seemingly contradicts the president's thirst for a Nobel Peace Prize.
"Nothing says 'give me a Nobel Peace Prize' like naming it the Department of War," Cornish said.
CNN correspondent Zachary Wolf noted the change also undercut his campaign promise to keep the U.S. out of new wars.
"One thing he definitely said on the campaign trail is that there would be no war under him," Wolf said, "and, you know, changing the name to the war department, there it is. Like the entire posture of the U.S. government is going from one that's setting back to one that's stepping forward, and, you know, words are powerful things. This doesn't necessarily mean the U.S. is going to go invading countries, but it certainly changes the way others are going to view the U.S., the way the American military is going to view itself."
Davis didn't have any specific objection to the name change on its merits, but she wondered about the logistics.
"Listen, I look at it from if this keeps our country safer because of how it's named and perceived strength," Davis said, "and, fine, I mean, I don't know, of course, my mind goes to how much is it going to cost to start changing everything, the Department of War again."
Cornish highlighted one comment by the president justifying the change.
"Used to be called secretary of war," Trump said, with a smiling Hegseth standing by. "In fact, if you look at the old building next to the White House, you can see where it used to be secretary of war. Then we became politically correct, and they called it secretary of defense. I don't know, maybe we'll have to start thinking about changing it, but we feel that way."
The host couldn't hide her amusement at Trump's remarks.
"Just because the politically correct times of 1947 just made me, made me chuckle," Cornish said. "But, yeah."
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