Pentagon chief says name signals more offensive approach to US military, but change unofficial without change to law.United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order changing the name of the Department of Defense to the “Department of War”.In a ceremony from the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said the name change was part of a larger shift away from “woke” ideology within the department. He added it would beckon in a new age of military victory.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listAdministration officials said the “Department of War” will be used in official White House correspondence and public statements, however, a more permanent change would require Congress to pass new legislation.The Department of Defense had previously been called the Department of War from 1979 to 1947. The name change following World War II when Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947, which consolidated the branches of the US military under a single civilian-headed department.Historians have said the name was also meant to signal an emphasis on preventing war amid the new threat of nuclear destruction.After signing the executive order on Friday, Trump suggested the name change was in some way related to the US’s dearth of decisive military victories.“So we won the first World War. We won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of Defense,” Trump said.“We should have won everywhere. We could have won every war, but we we really chose to be very politically correct or woke,” he said.Trump …
