Trump to rebrand Department of Defence as the Department of War, with a warrior ethos

US president Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Friday to rename the Department of Defence the Department of War.

The executive order would restore the name that existed from 1789 until 1947, and will call for the use of Department of War as a secondary title for the Department of Defence.

The order will allow Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials to use the titles Secretary of War, Deputy Secretary of War and Department of War in their official correspondence.

• Who is Pete Hegseth, Trump's controversial nomination for defence secretary?
• Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for US defence secretary, wants to bring back 'warrior culture'
• Easy way or hard: Trump threatens consequences unless Ukraine war is stopped

Name changes are rare, and the Trump administration must seek congressional approval in order to make it permanent.

The US media have said it is unclear how Mr Trump will make the name change permanent, but a White House fact sheet instructs the Defence Secretary to propose legislative and executive steps to make the change permanent.

According to the text of the order, as seen by the BBC: "The name Department of War conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to Department of Defence, which emphasises only defensive capabilities."

Why Department of War?

The US Department of Defence was called the War Department up until 1949, but the name was changed to avoid any negative connotations.

The name also looked to consolidate the US military, which was split separately between the War, Navy, and Air Force departments.

According to historians, the use of the title Department of Defence was in part to signal that the US was now focused on preventing wars.

However, with the new name change, the Trump administration hopes to present the US as more aggressive and reflects their effort to refocus the department with a "warrior ethos".  

"It used to be called the Department of War, and it had a stronger sound. And as you know, we won World War One, we won World War Two. We won everything. Now we have a Department of Defence with defenders," Mr Trump told reporters on 25 August.

He added that he didn't want the US military "to be defence only" but "offence" too.