When defense and marketing departments meet
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
There's a question bouncing around defense-tech circles: Will the Trump administration's rebrand of the Department of Defense change anything other than the seals and stationary?
The big picture: The War Department nickname, last week's Oval Office ceremony and the ensuing kerfuffles perfectly encapsulate today's national security scene in Washington.
- There's the debate over the symbolism: the egos at play, the branding domestically, the signal sent to allies overseas.
- And then there are worries about red tape, wasteful spending and the broader rework of Pentagon processes, leadership and priorities.
Driving the news: Sources Axios consulted (on the record and off; former defense officials, outside analysts and businesspeople among them) didn't necessarily take offense to the additional name, which has historical roots.
- Instead, they suggested the energy be expended literally anywhere else.
What they're saying: "When the president focuses his time and energy and attention, he is able to get stuff done," Frank Rose, a former National Nuclear Security Administration deputy and assistant secretary for arms control, verification and compliance, told Axios.
- "Instead of using his power with Congress to change the name, I would much rather have the president putting pressure on Congress to repeal all of these laws and regulations that make it difficult for the Department of Defense to deploy things quickly," he said.
- "You can say all you want that you're the Department of War, but if you're falling behind the Chinese, that's not going to do you very well."
What we're hearing: That sentiment. Repeatedly.
- "American military supremacy has eroded as China has sprinted to field combat forces that they hope can defeat the United States military in the Pacific," Bradley Bowman, an expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Axios.
- "Changing the name of the Department of Defense won't help with that."
Friction point: The alterations are part of a larger overhaul of the Pentagon under Trump 2.0.
- It's so far encompassed both culture and materiel — a crusade against "woke" as well as outdated or overdue weaponry.
- "You might almost call it a vibe shift, an attitude shift, a feeling that the country is back, that service is back," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday.
Zoom in: Consider the business world. Rebrands are often motivated by pivots, mergers and reputation management.
The bottom line: The update is closer to the truth of what the department is all about. "War is the use of force for political objectives," Daryl Press, the faculty director of Dartmouth's Davidson Institute for Global Security, told Axios.
- "The bread and butter of DOD is to threaten war to promote U.S. foreign policy goals," he said. In reality, when "we call it the 'Defense Department,' we're speaking in euphemisms."
Go deeper: Trump 2.0 refashions U.S. military muscle
