Trump to sign executive order renaming the Pentagon in historic move | 4 Sept 2025 | President Donald Trump will sign an executive order renaming the Department of Defense on Friday to its former namesake. The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have indicated in recent days that they want to change the name of the agency back to the Department of War, as part of the president's "warrior ethos" campaign within the Pentagon, Fox News reports. A White House official has since confirmed that Trump will roll out the name change on Friday in an executive order that calls for the term "Department of War" to be used as a secondary title to the Department of Defense and terms like "Secretary of War" to refer to Hegseth's position. The order also instructs Hegseth to propose legislative and executive actions to make the name change permanent.