DICKtator Cannot Legally Change DoD to the DoW (Department of War).

[MrWowWow]

In the United States, a president cannot unilaterally change the name of a government agency.

Here’s how it works:

1. Agencies Created by Congress

Most federal agencies are created by statute (law passed by Congress).

Their names are written into those laws.

To change such an agency’s name, Congress must pass new legislation, and the president would then sign it into law.

Example: The War Department became the Department of Defense in 1949 through the National Security Act Amendments passed by Congress.



2. Agencies Created by Executive Authority

Some offices, commissions, or task forces are established by executive order or by reorganization authority delegated by Congress.

In those cases, the president (or the Office of Management and Budget under presidential direction) can rename, reorganize, or even abolish them by issuing a new executive order.

Example: Presidents often rename or restructure White House offices (e.g., "Office of Public Liaison" becoming the "Office of Public Engagement&quot .



3. Practical Limits

Even when possible, changing an agency’s name affects statutes, regulations, appropriations, and contracts, so Congress almost always needs to be involved for major departments and agencies.

Symbolic or cosmetic name changes can sometimes be done at the executive level, but full legal recognition and funding alignment require congressional action.
.
Major departments (e.g., Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy): ONLY Congress can legally change their names.
_________________________
Symantics, History, Intent and the Constitution:

Constitution (1787): “Provide for the common defense” = collective security, protection, not standing war.

Department of War (1789): Congress created it to manage the Army; “war” was then the common term for military affairs.

Department of Defense (1947–49): After WWII, the War and Navy Departments merged; renamed “Defense” to stress deterrence and protection in the nuclear/Cold War era.

So: constitutional defense → administrative War Dept. → Cold War “Defense” Dept.

[BootinUp]

1. He can authorize the realease of the Epstein files though, correct?

[writerJT]

4. This Epstein?

?si=T0rAZI4fX-arUzkN

[progressoid]

12. I forgot about that interaction.

Gold.

[Igel]

2. That's why he's not actually doing what he and others claim he's doing.

The WH is clearer than NPR (and, naturally, Trump):

RESTORING THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to restore the historic name “Department of War” as a secondary title for the Department of Defense. This is the 200th Executive Order the President has signed since taking office.

The Order authorizes the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense, and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as “Secretary of War,” “Department of War,” and “Deputy Secretary of War” in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch.

The Order directs all executive departments and agencies to recognize and accommodate these secondary titles in internal and external communications.

The Order instructs the Secretary of War to recommend actions, to include legislative and executive actions, required to permanently rename the U.S. Department of Defense to the U.S. Department of War.

It's another one of those trollish EOs that are worded so as to make some misrepresent it (helped by Trump's inability to keep things straight) while the lawyers make clear where the legal lines are, as they see them (and not always too far off, that).

It's even acknowledged that this is likely a temporary thing, since EOs can be revoked with the same ease they are imposed.

[sheshe2]

5. ...and he wants the Nobel Peace Prize?!

[House of Roberts]

7. He only wants the Nobel to bargain his way into heaven.

He believes God has made a deal with him. (With Trump, everything is transactional.)

[sheshe2]

8. God? SHE is a lot smarter than that!

He doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell of getting anywhere near there. He would have to go through her first, that is NOT happening.

[Klarkashton]

3. Yet you watch. The assholes that run the media will

Fall into line. All those bastards that went to the WH to suck his dick last night.

[writerJT]

6. I always call it the War Department.

And I call “defense contractors” war contractors, etc. Probably 20 years now. They’re not about defense; they’re about making war. It’s a giant scam, the biggest wealth redistribution program in the world.

I’m very surprised that people are going along with this.

[Ms. Toad]

9. Seems to me this is exactly the reaction I predicted just yesterday.

Read.The.Executive.Order.

It doesn't purport to change the name, regardless of any PR, or diarrhea of the mouth accompanying the signing.

We have to stop getting all wound up about the things Trump imagines he is signing, and focus on what he actually signs.

[summer_in_TX]

10. Well darn. I hoped he really would officially change the name to the War Department.

It's a hell of a lot harder to convince appropriations committees (and the public) to support huge spending for war than it is for defense.

That's undoubtedly the reason its name was officially changed from the Department of War to the Department of Defense in the first place. Psycholinguistics. Similar to Estate Tax vs. Death Tax.

[jmowreader]

18. The name War Department was changed to Department of the Army

The Defense Department was a merger of this agency and the Navy Department.

[Wednesdays]

11. A friend on Facebook quipped,

"At least he's not going full Orwellian and calling for it to be renamed The Department of Peace."

[UTUSN]

13. K&R

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

14. I hereby rename the Gospel of Mark to the Gospel of Herod. Revelation to, Revolution. Corinthians to, Quranthians!

See Tramp, I can piss all over your bible with changing names.

[GB_RN]

15. Correct.

It would take an act of Congress to do that. Also, Generals Eisenhower and Marshal, both 5 star generals, advocated for the change to DoD. Who is Caligula to second guess men that actually knew what the fuck they were talking about? He’s not worth a roach’s turd compared to the SCAEF and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Caligula can go fuck himself.

Oh, and he’s wrong about the US never having lost a war under the War Department. There was the War of 1812, and the Department of War lost that one. Hell, the British BURNED Washington!

[Heidi]

16. But *we* can call it the Department of Distraction from the Epstein Files.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. 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

[Hekate]

19. I know, I know. But he also can't demolish the East Wing and build a gigantic ballroom. Question is...

Who Exactly is Going to Stop this Monster?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. It is still the Department of Defense