Overview

• Within hours, Pentagon web pages redirected to war.gov, official social accounts adopted the new label, and signage outside Pete Hegseth’s office identified him as secretary of war.
• The executive order permits the use of titles such as secretary of war in official correspondence and tasks Hegseth with proposing steps to make the change permanent.
• Republican lawmakers including Sens. Rick Scott and Mike Lee and Rep. Greg Steube introduced bills to codify the new name, with the issue expected to surface during upcoming defense bill debates.
• Federal law reserves department renamings to Congress, a point legal experts and officials underscored after the White House moved ahead with executive-branch branding.
• Critics warned of a costly global rebrand, with estimates ranging from tens of millions to over $1 billion, even as Trump and Hegseth framed the shift as restoring a warrior ethos and projecting offensive readiness; Sen. Mitch McConnell urged increased defense spending beyond symbolic changes.