Several U. S. Media reported on the 28th that the Pentagon has formally applied to Congress to change its legal name from“Ministry of Defense” to“Ministry of War. It is a follow-up to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump last September. U. S. “Sudden Defense” website said the move will probably anger Democrats, Democrats and Republicans triggered a new fight. Fox News Channel said on the 29th, some anti-war people believe that for a“Rush to war” of the government, the name is very appropriate.
A view of the Pentagon in Washington, DC, US.
The name change is part of a new legislative package proposed by the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel, the Washington Observer reported. The bill calls on Congress to amend the U.S. Code and all its derivatives to replace“Secretary of Defense” and“Department of Defense” with“Secretary of war” and“Department of war,” respectively. The proposal would also update Pentagon acronyms, such as the office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to read the office of the Secretary of War (OSW) . The proposal, if passed, would result in about 7,600 changes to the U.S. Code.
The cost of the changes is expected to be about $52 million, the Pentagon said. Of the nearly $52 million in costs, the Pentagon said in its proposed legislation, $44.6 million would go to defense agencies and related activities in the department, and $3.5 million would go to various military departments, Fox News Channel reported, $3 million for the Defense Secretary’s Office and Headquarters Service in Washington, and $400,000 for the Combined Chiefs of Staff, Combat Command, and more. “This change in the name of the department fundamentally reminds us of the importance of our core mission, which is to win wars,” the proposal reads. It has also become a strategic goal for measuring and prioritizing all activities,” the Pentagon said, the department’s estimate is well below the $125m the CBO forecast in January and will not have a“Material impact” on the FY2027 defence budget request.
Trump signed an executive order last September authorizing the use of“Department of war” as a“Secondary designation” for the Department of Defense, the US military times said, but the move remains largely symbolic. Only Congress has the power to permanently change the name of the executive branch, and Congress has not yet done so. Trump argues that restoring the original US defence naming system is a more“Appropriate” reflection of today’s world.
The Pentagon has moved quickly to change the prominent logo at its Washington headquarters after the Executive Order was issued, and government and military officials have started using the new name for the department, Bloomberg reported Monday. The Pentagon has changed its website and social media accounts to reflect the new name, and the plaque on the door to Hergesseth’s office has been changed to“Secretary of War”, the Capitol Hill newspaper said Tuesday.
The War Department was established by former US President George Washington in 1789. Since then, the U.S. military has been divided into two agencies: the War Department, which is responsible for the army, and the Navy Department, which is responsible for the Navy and the Marines. After World War II, U. S. President Harry S. Truman merged the services into a single military agency in 1947 and named it the Department of Defense in 1949.
Supporters of the name change said it was intended to restore the historic title of the War Ministry before 1947, Bloomberg said. In his executive order, Trump said: “It was under the name ‘Department of War’ that the department, along with the later Department of the Navy, won the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.”
Critics have questioned the symbolism of changing the department’s name to something more aggressive, while also raising concerns about the unnecessary costs of updating the identity and presentation of documents in a vast system of institutions around the world. Amash, the former republican-to-liberal congressman, said the name change underscored the government’s arbitrariness, unconstitutionality and illegality.
Some of Trump’s Republican allies in Congress have expressed support for the name change, Fox News Channel said. Representative Stubbs and Senator Lee introduced bills in the House and Senate, respectively, to try to incorporate the renaming into law. Meanwhile, at the other end of the political spectrum, as members of Congress begin negotiations on a defense policy bill for fiscal year 2027, democrats have criticized the Pentagon’s request to legalize the name“War Department.”. At a time when Americans can’t afford groceries, the Pentagon wants to spend tens of millions of dollars changing the name of its department, Complains Representative Jaya Parr, a Democrat.