The Trump administration’s effort to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War could cost taxpayers anywhere from $10 million to $125 million, according to an analysis released by the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday.
The 11-page report said a “modest implementation” of the name change would cost about $10 million. But that figure could rise up to $125 million if the new moniker were adopted “broadly and rapidly” across the department.
The congressional office noted the estimate is “uncertain” because the Pentagon “has not provided information” about how it plans to carry out the executive order signed by President Donald Trump in September.
At the time of the announcement, Trump declared the Department of War was a “much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.”
Trump went on to argue that the Department of Defense was too politically correct, and the Department of War “just sounded better,” noting it would be a callback to the original name used during the two world wars.
“We won the first world war, we won the second world war, we won everything before that and in between,” Trump stated in the Oval Office in September. “And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to the Department of Defense.”
The executive order directed the federal government to adopt the Department of War as a secondary title. Since then, the Pentagon has often styled itself that way, though its legal name remains unchanged. A formal renaming would require congressional approval, which has not been granted.
The White House, in a fact sheet, said the Pentagon may use the Department of War name in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonies and non-statutory documents within the executive branch.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), one of the two lawmakers who requested the report, cast the rebranding effort as “performative government at its worst.”
“Instead of prioritizing bringing down the cost of groceries or health care, Trump and his cronies are focused on vanity projects like renaming the Department of Defense,” Merkley said in a statement. “This move is performative government at its worst and does nothing to advance national security or help service members and their families.”
The Department of War, signed into law by President George Washington in 1789, stood for more than a century and a half as the central military authority in the United States.
After World War II, President Harry S. Truman replaced it with the National Military Establishment, merging the War and Navy departments with the newly independent Air Force. Two years later, it was rechristened the Department of Defense.
In September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said reverting to the Department of War in the modern era would signal “maximum lethality, not tepid legality; violent effect, not politically correct.”
Tanya Noury is a reporter for Military Times and Defense News, with coverage focusing on the White House and Pentagon.
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