President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday, directing that the Department of Defense be renamed as the "Department of War."
Trump then invited his "Secretary of War" to say a few words. The Executive Order authorizes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use the title “Secretary of War” in official correspondence and public communications, according to a White House fact sheet viewed by TIME.
00:00From 1789 until 1947, our nation won some of its greatest military victories under the direction of a Secretary of War operating within a Department of War.
00:12Today, with this executive order, you will authorize the current Secretary of Defense and the current Department of Defense to once again embrace this great lineage and once again be named the Secretary of War and the Department of War.
00:26So, this is something we thought long and hard about.
00:31We've been talking about it for months, Pete and I, and Dan.
00:35Dan came into the fall, by the way, a great general.
00:39He headed up the, I wouldn't call it an attack, I'd almost call that one maybe even more than an attack.
00:47What he did with Iran, you saw the success of that operation.
00:51It was perfect. In fact, we have, this was sent to me by the great company that makes that particular B-2 bomber.
00:58And it was flawless. It was actually flawless.
01:01So, great job, Dan.
01:03And we've been talking about this Department of War.
01:06So, we won the First World War.
01:07We won the Second World War.
01:09We won everything before that and in between.
01:12And then we decided to go, well, can we change the name to Department of Defense.
01:16So, we're going Department of War.
01:18And I'd like to ask our Secretary of War to say a few words.
01:25Pete Hanks said, I think it's a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.
01:31We have the strongest military in the world.
01:33We have the greatest equipment in the world.
01:35We have the greatest manufacturers of equipment by far, whether it's the Korean War or the Vietnam War or our generation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
01:42That's to recognize that this name change is not just about renaming.
01:48It's about restoring.
01:50Words matter.
01:51It's restoring, as you've guided us to, Mr. President, restoring the warrior ethos, restoring victory and clarity as an end state, restoring intentionality to the use of force.
02:03So, at your direction, Mr. President, the War Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts.
02:11It's going to fight to win, not not to lose.
02:14We're going to go on offense, not just on defense.
02:17Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.
02:22Violent effect, not politically correct.
02:25We're going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.
02:29So, this War Department, Mr. President, just like America, is back.
02:33Thank you for your leadership and your clarity.
02:35We're going to set the tone for this country.
02:38America first, peace through strength, brought to you by the War Department.
02:43We're back.
02:43You know, we solved seven wars.
02:46We have the one that I thought was going to be probably one of the easier ones, and that's with President Putin and Ukraine.
02:52And that turned out to be one that's a little bit more difficult.
02:56But the seven are done.
02:58They were supposed to be much more difficult to solve.
03:00I solved every one of them.
03:02And we're going to get the other one done, too.
03:04But it turned out to be a little bit more difficult than I thought.
03:07And it'll get done, or they'll be held to pay.
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