Working on a major defense policy bill in September, GOP lawmakers could have moved quickly to make that “War Department” name change official.
But the House and Senate did nothing on the subject, leaving the Department of War as just a nickname — and an easy target for Trump critics in Congress.
“Several of you mentioned that you were going to work for a department that doesn’t exist,” U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said at a recent hearing with Defense Department nominees, who touted the new nickname.
“If you’re talking about having been nominated to work for the Department of War, you’re 78 years too late,” King added.
Others on Capitol Hill have focused on the cost.
“Trump’s renaming of the Department of Defense to the Department of War could cost taxpayers up to $1 billion,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Illinois.
While the idea of using the moniker Department of War is seen by GOP supporters as a way to send a message of strength, it’s not the only place where Congress isn’t following Trump on military names.
The National Defense Authorization Act, a bill that funds the U.S. military, recently passed the House. The final version makes 550 references to the Department of Defense. The phrase “Department of War” appears zero times.
And Tucked into the NDAA — in the fine print of Section 2866 of the behemoth legislation — is a provision that seeks to block President Trump from bringing back a series of military base names that originally honored the Confederacy.
The bill language runs directly against Trump’s proclamation from earlier this year — where the military switched back to the names of Fort Bragg, Fort Benning and more, bases first named for Confederate generals.
Fort Gregg-Adams, named in-part after Daytonian Charity Adams Earley, was renamed Fort Lee. The fort was originally named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The Trump administration says it technically now honors Pvt. Fitz Lee, a Medal of Honor recipient from the Spanish-American War.
The vote to amend the NDAA to prevent renaming bases passed the House Armed Services Committee on a 29-28 vote, with U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton voting against it. Turner did not provide a reason for his vote.
The amended NDAA passed the House 231-196 on a largely party line vote with Republican support.
This raises a question Are those new base names official — or just nicknames, like the Department of War? There is an honest debate, since the bases were changed away from Confederate names after a law passed by Congress in 2020 — over Trump’s veto.
“I think the next president, if it’s a Democrat, will rename the bases,” U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Georgia, said this summer as the House defense bill was hammered out. “We have unfortunately politicized the naming of our military installations.”
In late August when Trump announced his plan for the Department of War, a reporter asked about getting approval from Congress.
“We’re just going to do it,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “I’m sure Congress will just go along.”
So far on Capitol Hill, that isn’t happening.
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