US President Donald Trump has proposed changing the name of the US Department of Defense to return the department to its pre-World War II name of the Department of War after the success in bombing Iran's nuclear facilities, writes the newspaper "USA Today", BTA reported.
"You know, it used to be called the Department of War", Trump told reporters on June 25 at the end of the NATO summit in The Hague. "Maybe in a few weeks we will call it that because we feel like warriors", the American president added.
Trump's remarks came after he described the US military missions to bomb Iran, carried out on June 21. He told of B-2 stealth bombers that flew for 36 hours in both directions from an air force base in Missouri and hit targets "perfectly" at night without taking advantage of the moonlight, according to USA Today.
"I think we achieved a great victory here," Trump said.
The US president then introduced Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth as "Secretary of State and Secretary of War". Trump said that the name of the Department of War, the predecessor to the Department of Defense, can be seen on the wall of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, where the department once was located.
Then we became "politically correct" and they called him Secretary of Defense, Trump said. "We might have to think about changing it. But that's how we feel," he added.
The United States had a Department of War from its founding until the end of World War II, when the departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force were given cabinet status. But in 1949, Congress merged those departments into the Department of Defense, recalls "USA Today".
Foreign journalists mocked US President Donald Trump while he answered questions at the NATO summit in The Hague, one of the correspondents reported on social networks, notes in a comment nj.com, an online news site in the state of New Jersey.
S. V. Date, a senior White House correspondent for the American publication "Huffington Post", wrote on the "Ex" platform that "Trump was raving at his press conference in The Hague, and foreign journalists who are not used to listening to his nonsense were giggling".
Date pointed out a number of moments during the press conference when Trump answered various questions - from the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
At one point, Trump called Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett "the Secretary of War" and said that the US changed the name of the War Department to the Department of Defense in 1947, when the country became "politically correct".
"It used to be called the Secretary of War. "Maybe in a few weeks we'll call it that because we feel like warriors," Trump said, as Hegseth stood behind him, nj.com reported.
In recent months, Donald Trump and his team have been rushing to rename things. From the Gulf of Mexico to the USS Harvey Milk, from Veterans Day to the Persian Gulf, the US president and administration have made it painfully clear: they are not happy with the names and classifications that much of the American public finds familiar, and they are eager to impose new ones, NBC television commented.
It is obvious that we can add to this list the name of one of the oldest departments in the country - the Department of Defense, as previously reported by USA Today.
The Republican does not seem to be joking, NBC notes. In fact, during his press conference at the NATO summit in The Hague, the US president referred to Pentagon chief Pete Hegsett as "Secretary of War" and mused about that title, which has not existed for several generations. Trump added: "At one time (he) was "Secretary of War"; then we became politically correct - Secretary of Defense - maybe we should start thinking about changing it".
While it is true that the US had a Department of War that was renamed in the years after World War II, it is also worth noting how absurd his interpretation of modern history is. Kevin Kruse, a historian at Princeton University, sarcastically explains on the social media platform "Bluesky": "Yes, when we historians discuss the National Security Act of 1947, we strongly emphasize how the centralization of American military power under the new Department of Defense at the dawn of the Cold War was about being "politically correct". But while Trump's understanding of the relevant details is clearly wrong, I don't think it was just his idea.
A few months ago, there were numerous reports that Elon Musk - at the time a White House official trusted by the president - was willing to receive a briefing on China at the Pentagon despite his close financial ties to that country. Trump was clearly not pleased, and expressed his displeasure in a lengthy online tirade, much of which has since been forgotten.
The line, however, ended with Musk saying that he would not be briefed on China by the "War Department".
It was easy to assume that Trump was simply confused and that the wording had no greater significance until about 12 hours later, Hegseth released an unscientific poll on social media asking whether "War Department" would be "a better name," NBC notes.
Respondents were invited to vote on whether the department should keep its current name or revert to its old one. (As of this writing, the latter name has 54% support.)
Soon afterward, Musk joined the discussion, stating that it would be "more accurate" to be called the Department of War.
That wasn't entirely true, since many of the military's missions are not related to conducting combat operations, but the commitment suggested that Trump's team was taking the issue quite seriously.
With this background, the president returned to the topic again at the NATO summit, three months after he first raised it publicly.
It's impossible to predict what the White House will do next, especially given Trump's limited attention span, but if he does try to turn back time on the name of the Department of Defense because, as the president himself put it, he and his team "feel like warriors," no one should say we weren't warned, NBC concludes.