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President Donald Trump on Friday signed his 200th executive order, authorizing the Department of Defense to change its name to the Department of War.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said the new name “sends a message of victory, a message of strength” to the world.
“It has to do with winning,” the president added. “We should have won every war. We could have won every war. But we really chose to be very politically correct or woke.
“We won the first World War. We won the second World War. We won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke, and we changed the name to the Department of Defense. So, we’re going Department of War.”
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President Donald Trump speaks to troops in North Carolina in June 2025. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)
Trump said the name is “a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.”
“We have the strongest military in the world. We have the greatest equipment in the world. We have the greatest men. New factories of equipment, by far. There’s nobody to even compete,” he said.
Turning to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a smiling Trump said, “I’d like to ask our secretary of war to say a few words.”
Hegseth thanked Trump for signing the order, saying, the name change restores the “warrior ethos” to America’s military.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged new officers to remember what it felt like to be in the graduates’ position and to always have each other’s backs. (Getty Images)
“After winning a war for independence in 1789, George Washington established the War Department, and Henry Knox was his first secretary of war. And this country won every major war after that. … One hundred and fifty years after that, we changed the name after World War II from the Department of War to the Department of Defense in 1947, and, as you pointed out, Mr. President, we haven’t won a major war since,” said Hegseth.
“This name change is not just about renaming, it’s about restoring,” the secretary said. “Words matter. It’s restoring, as you’ve gotten us to, Mr. President, restoring the warrior ethos, restoring victory and clarity as an end state, restoring intentionality to the use of force.”
Hegseth pledged the War Department “is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It’s going to fight to win, 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 going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So, this War Department, Mr. President, just like America is back.”
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A military member watches at the southern border. (Reuters )
The executive order calls for using the Department of War as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with phrases like “secretary of war” for Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet previously shared with Fox News Digital.
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It’s unclear if Congress, which has the authority to establish federal executive departments, will need to step in to issue final approval on the move. However, Trump expressed confidence the name will stick, saying, “We’re going with it, and we’re going with it very strongly … but we’ll put it before Congress.”
Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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