(Haiyun Jiang | The New York Times) President Donald Trump delivers remarks alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 21, 2025.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday as part of his effort to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War -- a change that could cost billions, and for which Trump has the backing of Utah's senior federal delegate and government spending hawk, Sen. Mike Lee.
The order, which was first reported by Fox News, reportedly requires all executive departments and agencies to "recognize and accommodate these secondary titles in internal and external communications," and will allow for Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use the title "Secretary of War" in official communications.
"It has to do with winning," Trump said in the Oval Office Friday afternoon. "We should have won every war. We could have won every war. We really chose to be a very politically correct or wokey and we just fight forever."
Hegseth, echoing that sentiment during the signing ceremony, said the United States hasn't won a major war since the agency overseeing the military was changed to the Department of Defense.
"This name change isn't just about renaming, it's about restoring," Hegseth said. "Words matter. It's restoring -- as you've guided us to, Mr. President -- restoring the warrior ethos."
Trump's executive order does not officially change the name of the agency to the Department of War, and doing so would require congressional approval, as the name of the department is established in U.S. law. Trump, however, has said he thinks getting a legislative OK is unnecessary.
"We're just going to do it. I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't think we even need that," Trump said last month.
And should the White House ultimately seek congressional approval, Trump already has a backer in Lee, who introduced a bill Tuesday to rename the department.
"For the first 150 years of our military's history, Americans defeated their enemies and protected their homeland under the War Department," Lee said in a release. "I'm proud to introduce the Department of War Restoration Act to make President Trump's return to tradition permanent in federal law. It should always be clear to anyone who would harm our people: Americans don't just play defense."
The Congressional Budget Office has not yet made a cost estimate for Lee's bill, but Politico reported Friday that such a change could cost billions, given the need to change the stationery, signage and emblems of hundreds of agencies in the department, both in the U.S. and abroad. As NPR noted Friday, as of 2023, the cost of renaming just nine Army bases was estimated at $39 million.
Lee rose to prominence as part of the Tea Party movement and first took office in 2011. He has been a harsh critic of government spending and was integral to the 2013 government shutdown when he pushed for defunding the Affordable Care Act.
Earlier this year, Lee agreed with a description of the Trump-backed Big Beautiful Bill as "debt slavery for the American people," though he later voted in favor of the $3.4 trillion budget package.
A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to a request for comment Friday on whether the senator believes officially changing the name of the Department of Defense requires congressional approval and what Lee thinks of the potential price tag of such a change.
The Department of Defense was called the Department of War up until 1947. Trump has said he supports the original name because "Defense is too defensive."
"I think it's a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now," the president said Friday. "We have the greatest equipment in the world."
This story is breaking and may be updated.