Washington, Sep 6: After months of campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize, President Donald Trump sent a sharply different message on Friday when he signed an executive order aimed at rebranding the Department of Defence as the Department of War.
Trump said the switch was intended to signal to the world that the United States was a force to be reckoned with, and he complained that the Department of Defence’s name was “woke.” “I think it sends a message of victory. I think it sends, really, a message of strength,” Trump said of the change as he authorised the Department of War as a secondary title for the Pentagon.
Congress has to formally authorise a new name, and several of Trump’s closest supporters on Capitol Hill proposed legislation earlier Friday to codify the new name into law.
But already there were cosmetic shifts. The Pentagon’s website went from “defence.gov” to “war.gov.” Signs were swapped around Hegseth’s office while more than a dozen employees watched. Trump said there would be new stationery, too.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom Trump has begun referring to as the “secretary of war,” said during the signing ceremony that “we’re going to go on offense, not just on defense,” using “maximum lethality” that won’t be “politically correct.” The attempted rebranding was another rhetorical salvo in Trump’s efforts to reshape the US military and uproot what he has described as progressive ideology.
Bases have been renamed, transgender soldiers have been banned and websites have been scrubbed of posts honouring contributions by women and minorities to the armed forces.
He’s also favoured aggressive – critics say illegal – military action despite his criticism of “endless wars” under other administrations. He frequently boasts about the stealth bomber strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and he recently ordered the destruction of a boat that the US says was carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela.
The Republican president insisted that his tough talk didn’t contradict his fixation on being recognised for diplomatic efforts, saying peace must be made from a position of strength. (AP)
