Trump to formally order renaming of Department of Defense to Department of War

WASHINGTON — President Trump will sign an executive order Friday restoring the Department of War name as a “secondary title” for the Department of Defense, a White House official told The Post Thursday evening.

Trump, 79, has argued in recent weeks that old moniker “sounds stronger” and is “much more appropriate” for the Cabinet-level agency.

The order will instruct Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to propose legislative and executive actions to make “US Department of War” the official name of the DOD.

Hegseth will also be permitted to use the title “Secretary of War” in official correspondence and public communications.

The War Department was known as such from 1789 to 1947, when the Army and Air Force departments were split by an act of Congress to form the National Military Executive with the already-existing Navy Department.

The National Military Executive was dubbed the Department of Defense two years later, in 1949.