Trump Announces New Title For Pete Hegseth

[mystery-ak]

Trump Announces New Title For Pete Hegseth

Published 6 hours ago

on July 11, 2025

By michael

In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump referred to Pete Hegseth not as the Secretary of Defense, but by a new title: Secretary of War. The post heaped praise on Hegseth for an appearance he made on Fox News, where he discussed modern-day military weapons and warfare.

Trump first made mention of a possible title change for Hegseth during the NATO summit, where he gave a short history lesson, thinking aloud about using a title for the cabinet position that hasn’t been used in over 80 years.

“You know, it used to be called Secretary of War,” the president said during his talk. The last commander-in-chief to use that designation was President Harry Truman, who applied it to Kenneth Royall, who became the last individual to hold the title. The Department of War was abolished in 1947, according to AL.com.

The title and position were replaced by the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Air Force, just before the Secretary of Defense was created.

According to the report, the president was potentially thinking about the strikes on Iran when he suggested the title change to Secretary of War.

“Maybe for a couple of weeks we’ll call it that because we feel like warriors,” Trump said to members of the press at the NATO summit at The Hague. “Used to be called secretary of war.”

“In fact, if you look at the old building, next to the White House,” Trump added, “you could see where it used to be the Secretary of War.”

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[rustynail]

War!  What is it good for?

[mountaineer]

I approve.

[Timber Rattler]

War!  What is it good for?

Trump showing his ignorance of history again.  The Secretary of War was traditionally the name for the senior civilian executive of the U.S. Army, like Edwin Stanton under Lincoln.  There was also a secretary of the Navy, like Gideon Welles.  After World War II, a really nasty interservice fight broke out between the Army and the Navy over which service secretary would be supreme in the post-war Pentagon, and as a compromise, the Secretary of Defense (as well as a Secretary of the Air Force) was created under the National Security Act of 1947. 

So if Trump changes Hegseth's title to Secretary of War, he could be opening a huge can of DoD political worms for himself, since SECNAV and SECAF won't like it one bit.  And SECARMY won't like being bigfooted by a renamed SECWAR.