To hear Donald Trump and his team tell it, the Department of Defense’s name has already officially been changed to the “Department of War.” That’s never been true.
As the president’s own directive on this makes clear, he’s “rebranded” the department with what is effectively a secondary nickname, but the gambit, launched last summer, was largely about symbolism and political theater. It takes an act of Congress to change the name of federal departments and agencies, and since that hasn’t happened, the Defense Department is still the Defense Department, whether the White House and Secretary Pete Hegseth want to play make-believe or not.
Indeed, it’s why “Department of War” has become one of those phrases that, for the most part, only Republicans use, joining “Democrat Party,” “Gulf of America,” “job creators” and “death tax.”
Nearly eight months after the rebranding effort was first launched, it appears the Pentagon wants lawmakers to codify the administration’s priority. The Hill reported:
The Pentagon has asked Congress to codify its “Department of War” renaming, saying it will cost nearly $52 million to complete and will not have a “significant impact” on President Trump’s fiscal 2027 defense budget request. […]
The request would make around 7,600 changes to the federal law, including officially changing the Department of Defense to the Department of War, Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War, among other updates.
In case this isn’t obvious, the proposed name change remains an entirely unnecessary priority, which sends all of the wrong messages to the world about the United States and its intentions. Career military leaders didn’t ask for this, and for the last several months, the proposed change did little more than annoy Pentagon insiders.
What’s more, it’s tempting to think Hegseth and other DOD leaders would put aside trivial pursuits like this during an ongoing war in Iran, which, two months in, has no end in sight.
But there’s also the question of the price tag.
The Pentagon doesn’t just want Congress to embrace the rebranding, it also wants lawmakers to spend nearly $52 million in taxpayer money. What the request neglected to mention is that the actual costs are likely to be even greater.
As The New Republic noted, the department has already spent roughly $50 million in adopting the new name, and according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, the whole endeavor would likely end up costing as much as $125 million.
Pointless bureaucratic chest-thumping is misguided. Asking American taxpayers to pick up the tab for expensive bureaucratic chest-thumping is worse.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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