President Donald Trump declared Monday that he intends to change the name of the Department of Defense back to the “Department of War,” reviving the title the agency carried until 1947.

Speaking at the White House alongside South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Trump said the new name better reflects America’s military posture. “We call it the Department of Defense, but between us, I think we’re gonna change the name,” Trump said. “It was called the Department of War. And to me, that’s really what it is. Defense is a part of that. But I have a feeling we’re gonna be changing.”

Trump claimed the switch could happen “over the next week or so” and brushed aside concerns that renaming the Pentagon would require congressional action. “We’re just gonna do it,” he told reporters. “I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don’t think we even need that.”

The U.S. Department of Defense was created by the National Security Act of 1947, replacing the Department of War and consolidating the armed services under a single civilian secretary. Any formal renaming would almost certainly require legislation.

Trump used the occasion of his bilateral meeting to reference America’s role in both world wars, and in an odd aside, reminded his South Korean counterpart of the sexual enslavement of Korean women by Imperial Japan during World War II.

The president has increasingly invoked martial rhetoric, portraying himself as a commander restoring “peace through strength.” Renaming the Defense Department to the Department of War would be one of his most symbolic breaks with decades of post–World War II convention.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)