• Congressional approval needed, but Republicans unlikely to oppose.
• Critics argue name change is costly and unnecessary distraction.
• Move would put Trump’s stamp on govt’s biggest organisation.

US President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order on Friday to rename the Department of Defence the “Department of War,” a White House official said on Thursday, a move that would put Trump’s stamp on the government’s biggest organisation.

The order would authorise Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Defence Department and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as “Secretary of War,” “Department of War,” and “Deputy Secretary of War” in official correspondence and public communications, according to a White House fact sheet.

The move would instruct Hegseth to recommend legislative and executive actions required to make the renaming permanent.

Since taking office in January, Trump has set out to rename a range of places and institutions, including the Gulf of Mexico, and to restore the original names of military bases that were changed after racial justice protests.

Department name changes are rare and require congressional approval, but Trump’s fellow Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the party’s congressional leaders have shown little appetite for opposing any of Trump’s initiatives.

The US Department of Defence was called the War Department until 1949, when Congress consolidated the Army, Navy and Air Force in the wake of World War Two. The name was chosen in part to signal that in the nuclear age, the US was focused on preventing wars, according to historians.

Changing the name again will be costly and require updating signs and letterheads used not only by officials at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., but also military installations around the world.

An effort by former President Joe Biden to rename nine bases that honored the Confederacy and Confederate leaders was set to cost the Army $39 million. That effort was reversed by Hegseth earlier this year.

The Trump administration’s government downsizing team, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, has sought to carry out cuts at the Pentagon in a bid to save money.

“Why not put this money toward supporting military families or toward employing diplomats that help prevent conflicts from starting in the first place?” said Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran and member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee.

“Because Trump would rather use our military to score political points than to strengthen our national security and support our brave servicemembers and their families – that’s why,” she told Reuters.

Long time in the making

Critics have said the planned name change is not only costly, but an unnecessary distraction for the Pentagon.

Hegseth has said that changing the name is “not just about words — it’s about the warrior ethos.”

This year, one of Trump’s closest congressional allies, Republican US House of Representatives Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, introduced a bill that would make it easier for a president to reorganise and rename agencies.

“We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that … Defence is too defensive. We want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive too if we have to be,” Trump said last month.

Trump also mentioned the possibility of a name change in June, when he suggested that the name was originally changed to be “politically correct.”

But for some in the Trump administration, the effort goes back much further.

During Trump’s first term, current FBI Director Kash Patel, who was briefly at the Pentagon, had a sign-off on his emails that read: “Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense & the War Department.”

“I view it as a tribute to the history and heritage of the Department of Defence,” Patel told Reuters in 2021.

• Rubio says it may trigger new strikes, could harden conflict lines.
• Avoids comment on Israeli annexation plans, calls them not final.
• US Secretary of State makes these remarks during Ecuador visit.

The United States has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

“We told all these countries, we told them all, we said if you guys do this recognition stuff, it’s all fake, it’s not even real, if you do it, you’re going to create problems,” Rubio said from Quito, where he met with President Daniel Noboa and his Ecuadorean counterpart.

“There’s going to be a response, it’s going to make it harder to get a ceasefire, and it may even trigger these sorts of actions that you’ve seen, or at least these attempts at these actions,” Rubio said, adding he would not opine on Israeli discussion of annexation of the West Bank but that it was not final.

Major European powers have said they could recognise an independent Palestinian state in coming weeks. What would that mean for the Palestinians and Israel?

What is the status of Palestinian statehood now?

The Palestine Liberation Organization declared the independence of a Palestinian state in 1988, and most countries in the global South quickly recognised it. Today, 147 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have recognised a Palestinian state, most recently Mexico in January 2025.

Israel’s main ally the United States has long said it intends to recognise a Palestinian state eventually, but only at the end of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel on an agreed “two-state solution”. Until recent weeks, this was also the position of the major European powers. Israel and the Palestinians have held no such negotiations since 2014.

A delegation officially representing the State of Palestine has permanent observer status but no voting rights at the United Nations. No matter how many individual countries recognise Palestinian independence, full UN membership would require approval of the Security Council, where Washington has a veto.

Palestinian diplomatic missions worldwide, including the mission to the UN, are controlled by the Palestinian Authority, which is recognised internationally as representing the Palestinian people.

The PA, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, exercises limited self rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank under agreements with Israel. It issues Palestinian passports and runs the Palestinian health and education systems.

In the Gaza Strip, administration has been under the control of the Hamas group since 2007, when it drove out Abbas’s Fatah movement, although the PA still funds many salaries.

Who is promising to recognise Palestine and why?

Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium have all said they will recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.

The countries say these moves are intended to put pressure on Israel to end its assault on Gaza, curtail the building of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and recommit to a peace process with Palestinians.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the first leader of a major Western power to endorse recognition, has said the move would be accompanied by a commitment by the PA to enact reforms, which would improve Palestinian governance and make the PA a more credible partner for the post-war administration of Gaza.

What has recognition meant in practice?

Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia and many Arab states that have recognised Palestinian independence for decades.

Without a full seat at the United Nations or control of its own borders, the Palestinian Authority has only limited ability to conduct bilateral relations. There are no missions with the status of embassies in Palestinian territory, and countries cannot freely send diplomats there.

Israel restricts access for trade, investment and educational or cultural exchanges. There are no Palestinian airports. The landlocked West Bank can be reached only through Israel or through the Israeli-controlled border with Jordan, and Israel controls all access to the Gaza Strip.

Still, countries planning recognition and the PA itself say it would be more than an empty gesture.

While Western countries considering recognition have not made explicit commitments to provide additional funding to the PA, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Husam Zomlot, said recognition could lead to strategic partnerships.

“We will stand at equal footing,” he told Reuters, adding that every avenue will be pursued “to bring an end to the insanity and to the mistakes of the past”.

Recognising Palestinian independence could also require countries to review aspects of their relationships with Israel, said Vincent Fean, a former British consul general to Jerusalem.

In Britain’s case, this could result in steps such as banning products from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, he said, although such moves could also be seen as “symbolic in that sense that those goods are a pinprick in the overall size of the Israeli economy”.

How have Israel and the United States reacted?

Israel, facing a global outcry over its conduct in the Gaza war against Hamas, has reacted angrily to recognition gestures, which it says would reward the Palestinian resistance group for the October 2023 attacks that precipitated the war.

After decades during which Israel was formally committed to a peace process ending in Palestinian independence, Israel is now run by the most far-right government in its history, including parties who say their mission is to make it impossible for the Palestinians ever to gain a state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will never give up ultimate security control of Gaza or the West Bank.

The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognise Palestinian independence. It has responded by imposing sanctions on Palestinian officials, including denying and revoking visas which will block Abbas and other PA figures from attending the UN General Assembly in New York.