Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailGet our free Inside Washington emailPresident Donald Trump is changing the Pentagon to the Department of War and it could cost taxpayers over $1 billion. Trump signed an executive order Friday afternoon to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War to indicate that America has “the strongest military,” he told reporters from the Oval Office. Politico warned in an article published Thursday the name change will likely cost billions of dollars as hundreds of Pentagon agencies, its global bases, stationery and other signage will need to be updated. When asked how much the name change would cost, Trump told reporters Friday, “Not a lot. We know how to rebrand without going crazy.”open image in galleryPresident Donald Trump is changing the Pentagon to the Department of War and it could cost taxpayers over $1 billion (AP)Whatever the figure ends up being the name change will cost the government money after the Trump administration vowed to cut wasteful spending. In February, the Pentagon proposed cutting 8 percent of the Biden administration’s 2026 fiscal year budget, about $50 billion, to fund Trump’s priorities, including border security and “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” Robert G. Salesses, the deputy defense secretary at the time, said in a press release.Trump mentioned the Pentagon’s name change several times in the last month, telling reporters, “Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War.”The agency’s name was changed to the Department of Defense in the late 1940s following the end of World War II.Now-Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said during a Fox & Friends interview on Wednesday, “We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department — with the Department of War.”“As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense,” Hegseth said. open image in galleryTrump signed an executive order Friday afternoon to change the Department of Defense to the Department of War to indicate that America has ‘the strongest military’ he said (AP)When asked Friday if Congress would codify the name change into law, Trump said, “I don’t know…but I’m not sure they have to. But he did say, “We’ll put it before Congress.”Republicans have already introduced legislation in both the House and Senate to rename the Pentagon the Department of War.
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Trump’s ‘Department of War’ could cost taxpayers over $1 billion
