President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Friday renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War.

 

Some of Trump's Republican supporters in Congress have proposed legislation to make the name change official.

 

Without a change in law, Trump is authorizing the Pentagon to use secondary titles.

 

The Department of War was the original name from 1789 until it was changed in 1947, two years after World War II ended.

 

Trump has expressed a preference for the original name, saying it “just sounded better.”

 

The Republican president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have long talked about changing the name, with Hegseth creating a social media poll on the topic in March. 

 

On Friday, after the executive order was signed, signage outside of the secretary’s office was changed from Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War.