Trump signs order rebranding Pentagon as ‘Department of War’; Hegseth promises ‘maximum lethality’

US President Donald Trump signed an order Friday rebranding the Department of Defence as the Department of War, saying it sent a "message of victory" to the rest of the world. Flanked by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth at a signing ceremony at the White House, the Republican president said the current name that had been in place for more than 70 years was too "wokey." "I think it sends a message of victory," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about the rebranding. "It's a much more appropriate name in light of where the world is right now." The name harks back to the War Department, the title used for more than 150 years from 1789, just after independence from Britain, to 1947, shortly after World War II.