Trump rebrands Department of Defence Department of War
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 September 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump has signed an executive order renaming the Defence Department, the Department of War; Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the change was to restore a warrior ethos. It must be approved by Congress although it is likely to pass. Also: Darth Vader's light sabre is sold for more than three million dollars, and the power of the washing machine to transform lives.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:05.2 | I'm Paul Moss, and in the early hours of Saturday, the 6th of September, these are our main stories. |
| 0:11.7 | President Trump has signed an order changing the name of the U.S. Department of Defense to the Department of War, |
| 0:18.3 | calling the rebranding appropriate for the state of the world. |
| 0:21.8 | And US officials say hundreds of South Koreans have been arrested in a raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia. |
| 0:30.5 | Also in this podcast, |
| 0:32.5 | The Force is with you, young Skywalker. |
| 0:35.2 | But you are not a Jedi yet. |
| 0:41.4 | Darth Vader's lightsaber is sold for more than $3 million. |
| 0:45.7 | What's in a name? |
| 0:47.7 | A famous question posed by Shakespeare. |
| 0:50.2 | But it might well be asked of the White House, |
| 0:55.3 | because Donald Trump has officially ordered that the Department of Defense should be renamed the Department of War. It's been called the Department of Defense since 1949, but signing the order |
| 1:01.7 | in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump seemed to suggest it had been given that name as a concession to liberal |
| 1:07.2 | sensibilities. We won the First World War. We won the second world war. We won everything |
| 1:13.2 | before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of |
| 1:18.0 | Defense. So we're going to Department of War. We have the strongest military in the world. |
| 1:22.8 | We have the greatest equipment in the world. Every element of the military we make the best by far. |
| 1:28.4 | Standing at the president's side was Pete Hegeseth, who of course until now has been known |
| 1:33.0 | as America's Defense Secretary. But Mr. Trump introduced him as the Secretary of War, |
| 1:38.4 | and he certainly spelled out what he thought the name change meant. |
| 1:42.4 | The War Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. |
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