The National Security Act of 1947 abolished the Department of War, established the National Military Establishment, and, two years later, in a 1949 amendment, renamed the National Military Establishment the Department of Defense. The change was deliberate. The intent was to consolidate and clarify the role of the armed services in a postwar order in which the United States, having stood up the United Nations charter and the Marshall Plan, sought to frame its military as an instrument of deterrence rather than aggression.
On Friday, September 5, 2025, the President signed Executive Order 14347, titled Restoring the United States Department of War. The order authorizes the Department of Defense, the Secretary of Defense, and subordinate officials to use the secondary titles Department of War, Secretary of War, and Deputy Secretary of War in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents. By Friday afternoon, the Pentagon’s website had been redirected from defense.gov to war.gov.
The order does not, and cannot, change the statutory name of the department. Only Congress can. The fact sheet acknowledges this. The order acknowledges this. The Secretary, when speaking, is still legally the Secretary of Defense. The department, when receiving its appropriation, is still legally the Department of Defense. The signs and the letterhead are the only things that have changed.
The cost of the cosmetic change, by NBC News reporting in November, will run to the order of two billion dollars by the time the signage and the letterhead and the URLs and the seals and the manuals and the joint headquarters of every command in the system are all updated. Half of that figure, per the same reporting, is letterhead.
Mitch McConnell, who is not generally a critic, called the change superficial. Peace through strength, the senior senator from Kentucky said, requires investment, not just rebranding.
A serious country names its institutions deliberately, on a long timeline, and changes the names with deliberation, on a long timeline. A serious country does not redirect a domain at five p.m. on a Friday and ship the seal to the printer Monday morning, because the seal of the United States is not a logo and the department of the country’s defense is not a brand.
Calmly documenting the decline.
The breakdown.
- Factual basis The text of Executive Order 14347 is on file.16/25
- Self-awareness The order itself acknowledges Congress retains the statutory name.6/20
- Staff containment OMB and DoD coordinated the implementation.12/20
- Recovery attempt None offered. Senators introduced legislation to formalize.6/15
- Public spectacle The Pentagon website redirected to war.gov by Friday afternoon.12/20
Was this dumb enough?
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