President Donald Trump on Monday said he would probably order a rebrand of the Pentagon, changing the US Defence Department's name back to its original title, the “Department of War”.
The Department of War, or the War Department, was created in 1789 and remained under that title until 1947, when it became the Department of Defence.
“We call it the Department of Defence, but between us, I think we're going to change the name,” Mr Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. “We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War. Then we changed it to Department of Defence.”
Mr Trump said the previous name “had a stronger sound”, adding that an update on the potential name change could come “over the next couple of weeks”.
“I have a feeling we're going to be changing it. I'm talking to the people. Everybody likes that,” he said. Mr Trump told reporters earlier on Monday that “we want defence but we want offence, too, if that's OK.”
The move comes as the Trump administration pushes to rename military bases and vessels that they consider too “woke”. Under former president Joe Biden's administration, seven army bases were stripped of their names because they honoured Confederate leaders.
Fort Bragg, named after Confederate Gen Braxton Bragg, became Fort Liberty for two years. It reverted to its original name this year under an order from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, though this time the name was in honour of Private First Class Roland Bragg, a Second World War soldier who won commendations for gallantry.
Mr Hegseth's tenure at the Pentagon has so far been largely defined by his attempts to boost “lethality”, end “wokeness and weakness” and restore the “warrior ethos”. In June, he announced that the USNS Harvey Milk, named after an assassinated gay rights activist and former sailor, would be renamed the USNS Oscar V Peterson.
