The Trump administration is advancing plans to rename the Department of Defence as the Department of War, the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported on Saturday, citing a White House official, after US President Donald Trump raised the prospect on Monday.
Restoring the Department of War name for the government’s largest department would be likely to require congressional action, but the White House is exploring alternative methods to implement the change, the report said.
Republican congressman Greg Steube of Florida filed an amendment to the annual defence policy bill that would change the name of the department, indicating some Republican support in Congress for the change.
“As President Trump said, our military should be focused on offence – not just defence – which is why he has prioritised warfighters at the Pentagon instead of DEI and woke ideology. Stay tuned!” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, using the initials DEI to refer to programmes aimed at increasing diversity, equity and inclusion.
We want defence but we want offence, too. As Department of War we won everything … I think we’re going to have to go back to that
Trump raised the idea of rebranding the Defence Department as the “Department of War” while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, saying it “just sounded to me better”.
