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Department of War latest Trump rebrand after Gulf of America, Bragg

Department of War latest Trump rebrand after Gulf of America, Bragg

Featured, USA1 week ago4 Views

President Trump has signed executive orders to rename several government-recognized entities since returning to office.
The Department of Defense will be renamed the Department of War, its name prior to 1947.
Other changes include renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and reverting Alaska’s Denali mountain to Mount McKinley.

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Sept. 5 renaming the Department of Defense to the “Department of War,” his latest in a series of rebrands he has led since returning to office.

The agency was last called the “Department of War” in 1947, when it was changed during a Cabinet reorganization under President Harry Truman after the end of World War II.

“It used to be called the Department of War, and it had a stronger sound,” Trump said during remarks to reporters on Aug. 25. “And as you know, we won World War I, we won World War II. We won everything.”

In just over seven months, Trump has moved to rename several government-recognized entities from mountains to U.S. Army bases. Which ones?

Gulf of Mexico has been renamed to Gulf of America

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Other countries aren’t required to recognize the name, but international organizations would need to help mediate the discrepancies.

The moves drew pushback from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who argued to Google that the U.S. cannot unilaterally rename the gulf as it is shared with Mexico and Cuba. Google Maps currently shows “Gulf of America” for American users.

Fort Liberty was reverted back to Fort Bragg

The Army base in North Carolina was originally named after Gen. Braxton Bragg, who served in the Confederate Army in the Civil War.

In 2021, Congress passed a law that banned naming military assets after anyone who voluntarily served or held leadership in the Confederacy. The move came out of the groundswell of racial justice movements in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The Confederate states fought against the U.S in the Civil War, largely in a failed effort to protect their states’ rights to enslave human beings.

The base was renamed to Fort Liberty in 2023. It was estimated to cost $8 million to update the name of the base at the time.

In February 2025, Secretary of State Pete Hegseth announced he was changing the name from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg. But technically, the base is no longer named after a Confederate soldier.

“Bragg is back,” Hegseth previously told reporters. “It’s about that legacy. It’s about the connection to the community, to those who served.”

The new name pays tribute to Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, the Department of Defense announced. He was a World War II veteran who earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge.

Alaska mountain has been changed back to Mount McKinley

As part of the same order that renamed the water between the U.S. and Mexico, Trump reversed an Obama-administration geography name-change by reverting the name of the Alaska mountain “Denali” to “Mount McKinley.”

Alaska officials have long called the tallest mountain in North America Denali, and the federal government began recognizing it as such in 2015.

McKinley was the 25th president who was assassinated in 1901 and used tariffs as president to promote U.S. industry. Denali is the Alsaka natives’ name, meaning “the High One.”

Trump called former President Barack Obama’s move to rename the mountain “affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice.”

The park around the mountain will remain named as Denali National Park and Preserve.

Renaming Veterans Day to ‘Victory Day for World War I?’

Trump said in a Truth Social post in May he wants to declare Nov. 11 as “Victory Day for World War I,” but that date is already federally recognized as Veterans Day. (He also said he wanted to recognize May 8 as “Victory Day for World War II.”)

Veterans Day celebrates the end of the fighting in Europe in World War I and celebrates America’s veterans, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The holiday in some form or another has existed since the first anniversary of the 1918 armistice, and has been celebrated on Nov. 11 and known as it is today, “Veterans Day,” since 1971.

Nov. 11 is still listed as Veterans Day by the Office of Personnel Management.

Several bills introduced to honor Trump by renaming these things

Some lawmakers are looking to rename other infrastructure in honor of Trump’s legacy. Here is the latest on them:

Washington D.C. airport – Rep. Addison McDowell, R-North Carolina, introduced legislation in January to rename Washington Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport, but it failed in committee earlier this year.
Washington D.C. train – Rep. Greg Steube, R-Florida, in May introduced the “Make Autorail Great Again Act,” designed to rename the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to the “Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access” (WMAGA) and the Metro train as the “Trump Train.” It was referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Kennedy Center opera house – A measure to rename the Kennedy Center opera house after first lady Melania Trump advanced in a committee as part of a larger amendment in July. If it passes, the opera house would be desinated as “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”

Contributing: Joey Garrison, Zac Anderson, Melina Khan, Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY; Reuters

Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.