President Donald Trump signed his 200th and 201st executive orders on Friday afternoon, which will rebrand the Defense Department as the “Department of War,” a feat that almost eclipses the 220 executive orders he signed during the four years of his first administration.
The executive order returns the Pentagon to its 18th-century name as a secondary title. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will also have the secondary title of “Secretary of War.” Hegseth touted the rebranding Thursday evening on X with a simple all-caps post: “DEPARTMENT OF WAR.”
Trump claimed that the name change was an attempt to reverse the “very politically correct or wokey” principles in the department during a special announcement in the Oval Office.
“We’ve been talking about this Department of War,” Trump said Friday afternoon. “So we won the First World War. We won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke, and we changed the name to Department of Defense. So we’re going Department of War.”
Trump cannot formally change the department’s name without authorization from Congress. Created in 1789, the War Department was not legally changed to the Defense Department until 1947.
“After winning a war for independence in 1789, George Washington established the War Department, and Henry Knox was his first Secretary of War, and this country won every major war after that, to include World War I and World War II, total victory,” Hegseth said.
“Then 150 years after that, we changed the name after World War II from the Department of War to the Department of Defense in 1947, and as you pointed out, Mr. President, we haven’t won a major war since,” he continued. “And that’s not to disparage our war fighters, whether it’s the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or our generation of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Hegseth then claimed that the name change was about “restoring the warrior ethos” to the Defense Department.
The White House pointed to Trump’s breakneck speed on executive actions as an indication that he is fulfilling campaign promises.
“With 200 powerful executive orders signed, President Trump is rapidly delivering on the promises that earned him the support of nearly 80 million Americans – ushering in a revolution of common sense, securing the border, defeating inflation, restoring energy dominance and delivering peace through strength,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The American people are getting exactly what they voted for, which is why President Trump is enjoying his highest approvals ratings ever. Under his leadership, America is the hottest country in the world!”
According to the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Trump had signed 199 executive orders as of Thursday. After the Friday signing, which is expected to happen in a closed-door session, Trump will mark the 200th and 201st order milestones in less than one year of his second administration. Trump is also expected to sign another order on Friday related to national security.
A White House official touted that Trump is signing orders at the fastest pace in decades. In his first 100 days, Trump signed 142 executive orders, more than any other president.
Notably, between 2017 and 2021, Trump signed 220 orders, eclipsing his successor and predecessor, Joe Biden, who signed 162 in his four years in office.
Former President Barack Obama signed 276 orders during his two terms in the White House, former President George W. Bush signed 291 orders across two terms, and former President Bill Clinton signed 364 orders in eight years.
But Trump has surpassed their records with at least 420 orders signed between his two terms, as of this Friday. The last president to surpass that record in two terms was former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who signed 484 orders over eight years.
Several of Trump’s orders this year have been met with lawsuits, which have led to legal setbacks.
Trump signed an order ending birthright citizenship on his first day in office. Yet after legal action from the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights advocacy groups, the order was temporarily blocked even after the Supreme Court’s decision in June to limit nationwide court injunctions. A fourth federal judge ruled against ending birthright citizenship in August, maintaining the nationwide block.
Another order blocking federal funding for sanctuary cities was also blocked by a federal judge in April at the request of 16 cities and counties nationally. Trump then signed another order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to withhold funding for sanctuary jurisdictions, but the same judge from the April ruling, U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco, warned the administration that it cannot evade his earlier ruling.
TRUMP TO SIGN ORDER RENAMING PENTAGON TO ‘DEPARTMENT OF WAR’
Roughly two months after Trump signed an order to dismantle the Education Department, a federal judge halted the action after advocacy groups and teachers’ unions sued. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston also ordered the administration to reinstate Education Department employees fired in mass layoffs.
Trump signed an executive order in April that relied on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to implement his “Liberation Day” tariffs on most U.S. trade partners. Five months later, his administration has asked the Supreme Court to continue allowing the president to implement the tariffs after a federal appeals court ruled that many of the tariffs were illegal.
