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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.
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.
Hegseth has said that changing the name is “not just about words — it’s about the warrior ethos”.
Name changes
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.
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.
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’
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” he said.
