The Official President Trump Thread - Second Term Edition

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/09/05/war-department-defense-trump-rebrand/

Opinion
Editorial Board
In defense of the War Department
Euphemisms such as “defense” and “security” have a tendency for bureaucratic mission-creep.
September 5, 2025 at 5:32 p.m. EDT
Today at 5:32 p.m. EDT

Euphemisms distort thought, and no entities are more adept at producing euphemisms than governments. President Donald Trump’s rebranding on Friday of the Department of Defense as the Department of War is a worthy blow against government euphemism. Perhaps it can be followed by clearer thinking about the military’s role at home and abroad.

President George Washington created the War Department as a Cabinet-level agency in 1789 to oversee the Army. It was joined by a Cabinet-level Navy Department in 1798. In 1947, the service branches were merged under the National Military Establishment, headed by a defense secretary. Two years later, Congress created the Defense Department, headquartered in the Pentagon.

Trump’s executive order cannot undo the legislation enacted in 1949, but it authorizes “Department of War” for use in labels and communications. Trump also proposes that Congress make the change official, and the National Defense Authorization Act (which normally passes in December) would be a natural vehicle.

It is more delicate to say that the Pentagon’s mission is defense rather than war. But the former depends on the latter. The extent to which the Pentagon can defend U.S. interests around the world is tied to the expectation that the United States can fight and win wars. That expectation is what shapes the calculations of rival states. As Trump said Friday afternoon in the Oval Office: “I’m going to let these people go back to the Department of War and figure out how to maintain peace.”

Concepts such as “defense” and “security” have a tendency for bureaucratic mission-creep. The Biden administration’s 2022 National Defense Strategy mentioned “climate” 19 times. Climate change is a problem, but fighting it is not the military’s job. Nor is nation-building.

Clarifying that the Pentagon is in the business of war-fighting could have other salutary effects. Congress has not declared war as the Constitution contemplated since World War II, even as U.S. troops fought and died in wars large and small around the world. Renaming the Pentagon won’t cause Congress to suddenly change its ways, but at least it is a reminder that the powers the Pentagon exercises are subject to legislative oversight.

The change won’t necessarily have the political effects Trump desires. He is making a point of using National Guard troops for domestic purposes — in D.C. and perhaps other cities soon. If those troops are commanded by the War Department, rather than the Defense Department, might it prompt more opposition to their deployment? By stripping away the euphemism, the name change bluntly highlights for the citizenry the power that these troops represent: They are not police officers but soldiers.

Trump’s opponents complain about the aggressive connotations of the new name. But the United States is protected by the most lethal and vigilant fighting force ever assembled, no matter what it’s called. The new name could prompt more focused debate about how to use it.



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fascinating that the Washington Post seems to approve of Trump's rebrand, whereas the Wall Street Journal seems to make a small dick joke at the President's expense. We live in interesting times.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/departm...9?st=z9nvUT&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Can Trump’s ‘War Department’ Win a War?
What matters isn’t the name but the erosion of U.S. hard power.
By The Editorial Board
Sept. 5, 2025 6:15 pm ET

President Trump signed an order on Friday to restyle the Pentagon as the Department of War, and the press has been preoccupied with the nomenclature. What should really worry Americans is whether Mr. Trump’s military can win the next major war, no matter what the sign outside the door says.

Mr. Trump loves nothing better than a rebrand. The decision in 1949 to change the name to the Department of Defense was because “we decided to go woke,” he said during Friday’s signing in the Oval Office, before he introduced Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of War. Mr. Trump then added that the War Department is “a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now. We have the strongest military in the world. We have the greatest equipment in the world.”

The name change is supposed to echo the era when America was victorious. “We won World War I, and we won World War II, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department,” Mr. Hegseth said recently. “We’re not just defense, we’re offense.” In other words, no more Vietnams, Iraqs or Afghanistans. But the obvious point is that the U.S. won the terrible conflicts of the 20th century because it built the most fearsome military power and had the political will to use it.

Neither are in abundant supply today, despite Mr. Trump’s assertions and his B-2 bomber fly-bys at diplomatic summits. The U.S. spent 16.9% of its economy on defense in 1952 during the Korean War and north of 8% during Vietnam. But after the explosion of government domestic spending on healthcare, retirement, education, and much more, the Pentagon now gets a mere 3% of GDP. Mr. Trump’s one-time cash infusion in his reconciliation bill this year can’t bend this downward trajectory.

“The United States last fought a global conflict during World War II, which ended nearly 80 years ago,” the bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy said last year. “The nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago. It is not prepared today.”

The commission said the U.S. needs a military that’s capable of fighting in more than one theater at once. Coordination among sophisticated adversaries—China, Russia, Iran, North Korea—means a future war might not be quick or confined to a single continent.

But leaks to the press suggest Mr. Trump’s not so new War Department is about to roll out a strategy that won’t come close to that standard. It might put controlling the southern border ahead of deterring China. Whether Mr. Trump truly believes in a broad American retreat from the world isn’t clear, but his Pentagon is presiding over one.

Listen to what retired Air Force four-star Gen. Mark Kelly said during a Friday event at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “We’re facing an apex adversary now, today,” he said of China. But the Air Force is “doing so with half the combat power that we had 35 to 40 years ago.” The fleet, Gen. Kelly added, is “twice as old and operating at twice the op [operational] tempo, flown by aviators getting half the training sorties, at half the platform readiness rates.”

This erosion of hard military power is the central problem at the Pentagon. Rename the place, or don’t. But talking up a War Department, without making sure it’s ready to win a war, is what one of Mr. Trump’s predecessors would have called speaking loudly and carrying a small stick. And that’s how wars are lost.

Appeared in the September 6, 2025, print edition as 'Can Trump’s ‘War Department’ Win a War?'.


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The main story should be how destroyed a booming economy that was given to him for literally nothing.



Don't allow his low iq boomer supporters @Os Trigonum distract you with bs about the department of war garbage. The economy is falling off a cliff. His cultists have to distract you

 

so now a Washington Post editorial is "garbage"??

 

We just had the worst 3 months of job growth in over a decade. The economy is falling off a cliff. People are taking out loans to pay for food bcz food prices have exploded cuz of his tariffs. Trump has 4x his net worth in 5 months by peddling crypto scams and you're focused on the department of war?

Do you not realize how utterly unhinged of a troll you've become?

 

So, now it comes out that Seal team six killed a bunch of FISHERMAN in North Korea in Trump's first term - they were going to plant a listening device.

All Seal team missions have to be PERSONALLY approved by the President.

Come on Congress do your job take him out.

The VAST majority of this country has had enough, outside of a few sad bubbas with the education of a turnip.

DD

 

President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Drumpf Camacho has fancy plans, and pants to match



No word yet on if the octagon will be guilded with 2.4 carat gold, like everything else he owns.

 

All a distraction from the core problem which is the global economy is falling off a cliff cuz of his policies

 

lol

 

The UFC match on the White House lawn is going to be LIT. Trump giving the people what they want!

Keep the National Guard there until the fight though -- protect our patriots in DC!

GOOD DAY

 

I don't think most Americans realize how much of a utter laughing stock they are in every country. You can brainwash your 65 year old white boomer who watches foxnews all day but anybody looking at the US from the outside sees the corruption and grift from miles away

 

People in insignificant countries don't like the USA? I guess we should totally change how we do things to desperately seek their approval!

Why is American culture dominant?
Why do millions of people try to move to our country every year?
Why do 70+ million people visit as tourists per year?
Why do we have the largest economy? Strongest military?

Other countries do not like us because they can't BE US. Winners should not change a thing because others are jealous.


GOOD DAY

 

Is that the **** he's always talking about?

 

He's an oddball that's for sure. I ate some of this "radioactive" shrimp by accident a few weeks ago and so far no severe symptoms...

https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-adv...ertain-imported-frozen-shrimp-indonesian-firm

 

Declaring "War" on an American city is a perfectly normal thing a sane President does

 

I just don't understand why we are starting a war with foreign nation of Chicago.

 

Cowards

 

@Reeko you know were cooked when McDonald's is saying theres a recession