Two Democratic senators have introduced legislation that would see Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth foot the bill for the costs associated with changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.
The name change is part of an effort by the Trump administration to project a powerful image on the global stage. Hegseth has said the name change would show that the United States is “not just defense, we’re offense.”
“We won World War I, and we won World War II, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War,” Hegseth told Fox News in August. The proposed change could cost taxpayers billions when accounting for new stationery, plaques, emblems, and signage at hundreds of Pentagon agencies and bases around the world.
Democratic Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen, both from Maryland, introduced a bill that would pull the costs of the name change from Hegseth’s travel budget. The bill clarifies that should the costs of the name change be higher than Hegseth’s travel budget, then the remainder would be covered by “the travel budgets of the military service secretaries.”
Americans are relying on us to build our military and support our service members against real threats around the world,” Sen. Alsobrooks said in a press release. “If the Trump Administration wants to waste money on this name change, they should use the Secretary’s travel budget to do it.”
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Van Hollen said the change has “zero benefit.”
“We should not be wasting taxpayer dollars to stroke Donald Trump’s ego and whims, but that’s what this latest dictate by the Administration would do,” Van Hollen said. That’s why our bill requires that this wasteful Trump Administration endeavor not come at the expense of America’s military readiness.”
