Pentagon gripped by 'frustration, anger and downright confusion' aimed at Trump: report
Outside of Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, there is little excitement within the Pentagon and among former defense officials to see the Department of Defense (DOD) renamed as the Department of War (DOW) with worries about cost, confusion and also how other nations will use the change for propaganda purposes.
According to a report from Politico, the long-anticipated rebranding landed with a thud on Friday as the president and the controversial Hegseth discussed it in an Oval Office press availability.
Trump told reporters, “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.”
That was greeted with “frustration, anger and downright confusion at the effort, which could cost billions of dollars for a cosmetic change that would do little to tackle the military’s most pressing challenges — such as countering a more aggressive alliance of authoritarian nations,” wrote Politico’s Jack Detsch, Paul McLeary and Joe Gould.
One former defense official scoffed, “This is purely for domestic political audiences. Not only will this cost millions of dollars, it will have absolutely zero impact on Chinese or Russian calculations. Worse, it will be used by our enemies to portray the United States as warmongering and a threat to international stability.”
“I see there being a million small headaches and annoyances if this actually happens. It’ll eat up time and effort,” a current Pentagon official added.
Going on the record, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) cautioned on X, “If we call it the Dept. of War, we’d better equip the military to actually prevent and win wars. Can’t preserve American primacy if we’re unwilling to spend substantially more on our military than Carter or Biden. ‘Peace through strength’ requires investment, not just rebranding.”
Politico is reporting, “The seemingly ad hoc rollout of the name change has caused confusion within the building. One Pentagon official, who independently decided to squat on the Department of War LinkedIn page to prevent a foreign adversary or Trump administration critic from taking it over, openly asked on the social network to whom he should hand the page.”
Another official pointed out that the Pentagon, during Trump’s second term, has already been dragged into making major changes at Hegseth’s request, when they were forced to scrub any mention of DEI initiatives, explaining, "That was just taking down photos. The seal will have to change and thus anything with it.”
The Department of War changes would be significantly more labor-intensive.“On a tactical level, it would mean having to rebrand a mountain of contracting, marketing, business development materials, you name it, both digital and otherwise, that specifically cite the Department of Defense or DOD,” a defense analyst warned.
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