Congress Has Only Itself to Blame for the War Department

Congress Has Only Itself to Blame for the War Department

Years of neglected oversight have led to unrestrained presidential authority.

The new Department of War logo is seen inside the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. September 9, 2025, 4:13 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump rechristened the Department of Defense as the War Department. To drive the point home, the White House X account shared an image of the president squatting in sunglasses and a cavalry hat against a backdrop of helicopters, explosions, and the Chicago skyline—a parody of the film Apocalypse Now . The caption read, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago [sic] about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.”

That same week the U.S. mi