Washington DC - President Donald Trump signed an order Friday rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, saying it sent a "message of victory" to the rest of the world.

Flanked by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth at a signing ceremony at the White House, the Republican president said the current name that had been in place for more than 70 years was too "wokey."

"I think it sends a message of victory," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about the rebranding. "It's a much more appropriate name in light of where the world is right now."

The name harks back to the War Department, the title used for more than 150 years from 1789, just after independence from Britain, to 1947, shortly after World War II.

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Trump cannot formally change the name of the Pentagon without the approval of Congress – but the 79-year-old's order authorizes the use of the new label as a "secondary title."

Former Fox News host Hegseth swiftly embraced the change, posting a video of a new nameplate saying "Secretary of War" being stuck to his door at the Pentagon.

The combat veteran, named by Trump to lead a major overhaul of the sprawling department, said the change was "not just about renaming, it's about restoring the warrior ethos."

"Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We're going to raise up warriors, not just defenders," said Hegseth.

Trump, meanwhile, even appeared to blame America's military misadventures since its victories in World Wars I and II on the decision to call it the Department of Defense, which was made in 1949.

"We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct or wokey," said Trump, who was signing the 200th executive order of his second term.

The rebranding forms part of a wider bid by Trump to project power and potency at home and abroad in his second term, as part of his "Make America Great Again" policy.

Trump has in particular ordered a US military build-up in the Caribbean to counter what he calls drug cartels led by Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro. US forces killed 11 people in a strike on what Washington alleged was a drug-carrying boat earlier this week.

Trump also ordered a US military strike on Iranian nuclear sites in June.

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Domestically, he has deployed the US National Guard in the capital Washington and Los Angeles in recent months in what he has called a crackdown on crime and immigration.

Democrats have called the latest move a costly political stunt by the billionaire.

The White House is yet to say how much a rebrand would cost, but US media expect a billion-dollar price tag for the overhaul of hundreds of agencies, emblems, email addresses, and uniforms.

A Pentagon official told AFP the "cost estimate will fluctuate as we carry out President Trump's directive to establish the Department of War's name. We will have a clearer estimate to report at a later time."

Trump had trailed the announcement for several weeks. He complained that the name Department of Defense was too "defensive" and made America look weak.

Hegseth, meanwhile, has lambasted prior administrations for policies he and Trump have derided as "woke."

Notably, he has sought to expel transgender troops from the military and change the names of bases that honored Confederate troops back to their original titles, after they were renamed under former President Joe Biden.

The War Department was established in August 1789 to oversee the US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, according to an official Pentagon history web page. The Navy and Marines split off a decade later.