President Trump Rebrands the Pentagon the 'Department of War'

The Brian Lehrer Show | Sep 8, 2025

President Trump announced he will rename the Department of Defense the "Department of War." Fred Kaplan, Slate's War Stories columnist and the author of many nonfiction books and his latest, a novel, A Capital Calamity (Miniver Press, 2024), explains the symbolic and actual implications for this decision, plus talks about the dubious legality of the Trump administration's fatal attack on a Venezuelan boat they say was transporting illegal drugs.

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