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President Donald Trump has officially ordered the rebranding of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

Getting into it: While in the Oval Office yesterday, Trump framed the move as necessary to restore America’s fighting spirit and project strength on the world stage. He argued that the term “Department of Defense” reflects a passive, politically correct posture that has undermined US military dominance since World War II. “It has to do with winning,” Trump said. “We should have won every war. We could have won every war. But we really chose to be very politically correct or woke.”

The executive order authorizes the Pentagon to use “Department of War” as a secondary title and allows leadership titles, such as “Secretary of War,” to be used in official communications. Trump said the change “sends a message of victory, a message of strength,” and stressed that the rollout would be gradual to minimize costs. “We know how to rebrand without having to go crazy,” he stated. “We don’t have to recarve a mountain or anything.”

Despite this, some warn the change could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, with former officials highlighting the need to update military signage, documents, websites, and materials across the globe.

This has led to criticism. In an interview on CNN, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, “Let me tell you, a name change has nothing to do with the strength of our military.” Other lawmakers, primarily on the left, echoed this, arguing that changing the name was a waste of time and money.

Still, Secretary Hegseth defended the rebrand as a cultural and strategic correction. “Words matter,” Hegseth said during the Oval Office announcement. “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.”

This all comes as some say Congress will ultimately need to approve the name change for it to become legally binding. While the executive order allows for immediate use of the “Department of War” as a secondary title, the official legal name (established by Congress in 1949) remains the Department of Defense.