US Department Of Defense To Become Department Of War? White House Moving Forward With Trump's Idea, Says Report

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The Donald Trump administration in the United States is moving ahead with its plans to name rename the Department of the Defense as the Department of War, a report said on Saturday.

According to the report published by the Wall Street Journal citing a White House official, Trump's office is currently exploring options in which the renaming of the Department of Defense as the Department of War that can be smooth and facilitated seamlessly.

The 'Department of War' name for the defence department of the US was last used in 1947. According to American law, an act by the Congress can lead to the restoration of the US administration's largest department's name, leading White House officials to look up for other options.

Livemint could not independently verify the report as the White House did not officially confirm anything at the time of writing this article.

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Donald Trump has been backing the idea to rename Department of Defense as Department of War since he took office in January.

“As Department of War, we won everything. We won everything,” the US President said on Monday referring to the wars America fought before WWII, according to the report.

“I think we're going to have to go back to that,” he added.

Department of War“has a stronger sound,” Donald Trump said on Monday in an Oval Office meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. He added that the name might be changed“in a week or so”, according to the WSJ report.

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Back in June, Trump had floated the idea of the renaming the Defense Secretary as the Secretary of War.

“It used to be called Secretary of War,” he told a gathering of foreign leaders at a NATO summit in The Hague, adding,“Maybe we'll have to start thinking about changing it.”

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth backed trump's idea.

Defense Department“just doesn't sound right”, he said during a Cabinet meeting.

Steps taken till now

According to the WSJ report, the Pentagon had started to brainstorm legislative proposals during the early weeks of Donald Trump's second term as President.

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One of the ideas involved asking the“Congress for authority to restore the former name during a national emergency”, it said. Pentagon also sought to change the title of the Secretary of Defense as Secretary of War.

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