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Key Points
  • US President Donald Trump is expected to confirm a name change for the Pentagon.
  • it will revert to the name it had before 1949.
  • Trumps’ defence secretary Pete Hegseth, will be the war secretary.
United States President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would see the country’s defence department, or the Pentagon, be renamed as the Department of War.
The order would also mean US defence secretary Pete Hegseth is called war secretary.
It’s a move that would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars and see Trump put a stamp on the government’s biggest organisation. It would also instruct Hegseth to recommend legislative and executive actions required to make the renaming permanent.

Until 1949, the US defence deparment was called the war department. But the name was changed as a signal that, in the nuclear age, the US was focused on preventing wars, according to historians.

Trump floated the possibility of a name change in June, suggesting the name was originally changed to be “politically correct”.

Hegseth has said that changing the name is “not just about words — it’s about the warrior ethos”.

Name changes

Since taking office in January, Trump has renamed a range of places and institutions, including the Gulf of Mexico, and restored the original names of military bases that were changed after racial justice protests.

Department name changes are rare and require congressional approval, but Trump’s fellow Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the party’s congressional leaders have shown little appetite for opposing any of Trump’s initiatives.

The name change will require updating signs and letterheads not only by officials at the Pentagon in Washington DC, but also military installations around the world.
Critics have said the planned name change is not only costly, but an unnecessary distraction for the Pentagon.

An effort by former president Joe Biden to rename nine bases that honoured the Confederacy and Confederate leaders was set to cost the US Army US$39 million ($60 million). That effort was reversed by Hegseth earlier in 2025.

A man in a suit and tie looking solemn

United States defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the name change was “about the warrior ethos”. Source: AAP / Yuri Gripas/Aaron Schwartz

‘I’m going to stop the wars’

In his second term, Trump has continuously billed himself as an anti-war president.
“I’m not going to start a war,” Trump said during his re-election speech. “I’m going to stop the wars.”
At his inauguration, he said he would build the “strongest military the world has ever seen”, promising that success was gauged by the “wars that we end” and the “wars we never got into”.

“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” he said.

Previously, he claimed he would end Russia’s war on Ukraine within “24 hours” of taking office.
Trump — who has been trying to broker a peace settlement — has also said he wants the two leaders to meet and has threatened, but not yet imposed, secondary sanctions on Russia.
It also continues to back close ally Israel as it continues its war in Gaza.
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
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