"Please stop using headlines with the form 'Trump does X' when X is something Trump lacks any legal authority to do."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Reposted by Mike Masnick

Julian Sanchez
‪@normative.bsky.social‬
Reporters, I beg you, please stop using headlines with the form “Trump does X” when X is something the president clearly lacks any legal authority to do.

‪Lewis Goodall‬
‪@lewisgoodall.com‬
· 14h
NEW: Donald Trump to rename the Department of Defense the “Department of War”

“Restoring the name Dept of War will sharpen the focus of the Dept on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to defend its interests.”
September 4, 2025 at 7:00 PM

Reporters, I beg you, please stop using headlines with the form “Trump does X” when X is something the president clearly lacks any legal authority to do.

— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T23:00:05.928Z

Lewis Goodall
‪@lewisgoodall.com‬

Follow
NEW: Donald Trump to rename the Department of Defense the “Department of War”

“Restoring the name Dept of War will sharpen the focus of the Dept on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to defend its interests.”
September 4, 2025 at 6:48 PM

NEW: Donald Trump to rename the Department of Defense the “Department of War”

“Restoring the name Dept of War will sharpen the focus of the Dept on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to defend its interests.”

— Lewis Goodall (@lewisgoodall.com) 2025-09-04T22:48:54.061Z

[Walleye]

1. Department of war to be used to pick up trash in DC

That’s the headline we should be seeing. also please, headline writers, journalists, stop using the word. “crackdown“. Gestapo tactics are not a crackdown

[Diamond_Dog]

6. I couldn't agree more.

[rampartd]

7. "WARRIOR ETHOS"

whatever that means to field marshall bone spurs.

[Walleye]

9. He is just itching to start a real war

[edhopper]

2. But Trump continues to do things

he has no authority to do, and nobody is stopping him.

[Abstractartist]

5. Because

Because Democrats have zero power to do anything. If complacency was not a problem, none of this would have happened.

[Scrivener7]

3. Excellent, excellent point, and needs to be repeated 10X a day!! Along with EPSTEIN, EPSTEIN, EPSTEIN.

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. TacoTits does things on a daily basis that are illegal. Why should we stop pointing it out?

[Hugin]

8. Hear, hear! n/t

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. MaddowBlog-Trump wants to rebrand the Defense Department as the 'Department of War'

The president insisted that he and his team were “gonna change the name” of the Defense Department. As it turns out, that isn’t quite right.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-wants-rebrand-defense-department-department-war-rcna229303

It would be far more accurate to say that Trump likes to pretend he’s good at branding, and that leads him in some unfortunate directions. NBC News reported on Trump’s upcoming executive order to add “Department of War” as the secondary title of the Defense Department:

The order, which Trump is expected to sign in the Oval Office, won’t rename the Defense Department, but it will authorize Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use secondary titles like ‘secretary of war’ and ‘Department of War’ in official correspondence and public communications and during formal ceremonies, according to a White House preview of the order. Trump will require all executive departments and agencies to ‘recognize and accommodate these secondary titles in internal and external communications.’

......At a White House event last week, a reporter reminded the president that it would require an act of Congress to rename a Cabinet agency. He replied, “We’re just gonna do it.”

The comment now makes more sense: Trump isn’t renaming the department; he’s wrapping a new skin around it like a cheap sedan.

We’ve been headed down this path for much of the year. The first hint came in March, when the president published an item to his social media platform that referred in passing to the Pentagon as “the Department of War.” A few months later, he reiterated his interest in the change and even referred to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth as the “secretary of war.”.....

On the other hand, Trump has also destabilized international alliances and institutions, announced plans to acquire countries that don’t appear to have any interest in joining the United States, launched a preemptive strike against Iran, militarized his own country’s capital, mused about launching military strikes against targets in Mexico and Central America, boasted about a military strike against a civilian boat in international waters and is now rebranding the Pentagon — because “we want offense, too.”

If he’s still angling to get that Nobel, he might want to lower his expectations.

trump knows that he does not have votes in congress to officially change the name and so is playing a game here

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. Update: it turns out the new name (Department of War) is actually a nickname as it's a "secondary title" lol

This is only nickname

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. It is still the Department of Defense

[Initech]

13. I wish they'd stop referring to him as "president". "Illegally elected fascist criminal" sounds better!