The Old Executive Office Building, also known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, located at the corner of Pennsylvania Ave. and 17th Street, NW in Washington. It once housed the War Department, State Department and Navy Department.
President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order Friday changing the Defense Department’s name to the Department of War as a secondary title.
The order — the 200th signed by the president since taking office — authorizes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and DOD subordinate officials to use secondary titles like “Department of War,” “Secretary of War” and “Deputy Secretary of War” in public communications, official correspondence, ceremonial contexts and non-statutory documents within the executive branch, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.
Additionally, the order directs all executive agencies and departments to “recognize and accommodate these secondary titles in internal and external communications,” as well as instructing Hegseth to recommend actions — including executive and legislative actions — that would be required to permanently rename the department.
“The name ‘Department of War’ conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to ‘Department of Defense,’ which emphasizes only defensive capabilities,” the fact sheet reads.
“Restoring the name ‘Department of War’ will sharpen the focus of this department on our national interests and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to secure its interests,” it continues.
Prior to signing the executive order, Trump said, “This is something [we’ve] thought long and hard about; we’ve been talking about it for months.”
He added that, under the original War Department, the U.S. achieved military victories in both world wars; however, victories turned into more prolonged conflicts that often resulted in a “sort of tie” once the War Department rebranded as the Defense Department.
Hegseth concurred with Trump’s contention.
“We changed the name after World War II from the Department of War to the Department of Defense and … we haven’t won a major war since,” Hegseth said.
“And that’s not to disparage our warfighters … That’s to recognize that this name change is not just about renaming, it’s about restoring; words matter,” he continued.
The secretary went on to say that the War Department would fight decisively to win and not get mired down in endless conflicts.
“Maximum lethality, not tepid legality; violent effect, not politically correct,” he said.
The War Department was originally established by Congress on Aug. 7, 1789, the same year the Constitution took effect. It replaced the Board of War and Ordnance, which was created in 1776 during the Revolutionary War.
The War Department had oversight over the Army and Navy until 1798, when the Navy Department was formed.
The first secretary of war, a civilian position, was retired Army Gen. Henry Knox, who was appointed by President George Washington. Fort Knox, Kentucky, is named after him.
On Nov. 8, 1800, the War Department building in Washington burned down and with it, all of the department’s records.
During the Civil War, the department was responsible for recruiting, training, supply, medical care, transportation and the pay of two million soldiers.
The War Department’s name remained the same for over 150 years, until it merged with the Department of the Navy and the newly established Department of the Air Force to become the National Military Establishment with the passage of the 1947 National Security Act.
Famous War Department secretaries include James Monroe, who became president; John Calhoun, who became vice president; Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederate States; Ulysses S. Grant, a former Union general who became president; Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln; and William Howard Taft, who became president and then chief justice of the Supreme Court.
David Vergun, Department of War, contributed to this article.
