Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly fastened new bronze plaques reading “Department of War” at two Pentagon entrances, the latest visible step under President Trump’s executive order.
- The department’s legal name remains the Department of Defense because a statutory change requires Congress to act, so “Department of War” is being used as a secondary title for now.
- Briefings to reporters and congressional staffers indicate total costs could reach $2 billion, including roughly $1 billion to replace signage and letterhead across global installations.
- One of the most expensive tasks would be recoding and updating the Pentagon’s public, internal, classified and unclassified systems, while the Pentagon says a final estimate is still pending due to the shutdown.
- Republican lawmakers have introduced bills to formalize the change, several Democrats requested a CBO score, and some in both parties—including Sen. Rand Paul—have voiced opposition to funding the rebrand.