Department Of Defense's 'Department Of War' Glow-Up Will Cost $125 Million. Is That A Lot?
Probably $5 million for the montage alone.
In September of last year, Donald Trump issued an executive order authorizing the Department of Defense to rebrand as the Department of War, on the grounds that “Department of Defense” was too “woke.” You know, because of how “woke” everyone was in 1949, when it was originally changed from the Department of War to the Department of Defense.
Of course, we haven’t actually acted in “defense” since then and “Department of Defense” has always been a rather 1984-ish way to describe what we actually do. We have invaded other countries either for oil or to “stop the spread of communism” because apparently other countries can’t be allowed to choose their own economic systems, but not in defense of ourselves. But that’s not why Trump and Hegseth wanted the name change. They wanted it because they think it sounds cooler and tougher than Department of Defense, which, again, Trump claims is “woke.” Because nothing says “woke” like the My Lai Massacre, the Tiger Force, or Abu Ghraib. Or, you know, just war in general.
Trump can’t actually officially change the name without an act of Congress, so the Department of War will be its secondary name, like a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust thing, except not cool. They’re just going to pretend that’s what it’s called, for now, while Republican legislators try to pass a bill to make it legit … though so far, they’ve gone nowhere.
In response, Senate Democrats requested a Congressional Budget Office analysis for the project, which found that it would cost $10 million for a bare bones, slower-paced phase-in, and up to $125 million if it were rapidly and fully implemented throughout the department. Or hell, even more than that.
Via AP:
The assessment said it would cost roughly $10 million for a “modest implementation” of the executive order if the name change happened within the agency, and such a cost would most likely be absorbed within the Pentagon’s existing budgets.
“A statutory renaming could cost hundreds of millions of dollars,” depending on how Congress and the Defense Department choose to to do it, the report says.
The Pentagon has more than 6.5 million square feet of office space, and many of the signs, logos and seals have remained unchanged. It is not clear if the push to alter the Defense Department’s name has been carried out at the numerous military facilities across the world.
Let us remind you that these were the same people who were absolutely hysterical over an entirely false claim that $47,000 of a USAID grant went to fund a production of Laura Kaminsky’s chamber opera As One in Colombia, because it’s about a trans woman. In actuality, the State Department gave $25,000 to the Universidad De Los Andes in Bogotá for “expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world,” and, separately, the school co-produced a production of the opera.
Definitely a great reason to let hundreds of thousands of people across the world die, all while you’re endlessly crying about “the birth rate.” (Not that we don’t know they’re really only talking about the white birth rate.)
They’re still het up about that one, but I’m guessing it would be just fine to drop $125 million on a Department of Defense rebrand, for the purposes of making Pete Hegseth feel more macho. It seems like it would be cheaper to just buy the man a penile implant, some flannel shirts, and a beer hat, but what do I know?
In related news, Senators Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen, and Angela Alsobrooks introduced the Stop Executive Renaming for Vanity and Ego (SERVE) Act earlier this week, which would bar sitting presidents from naming things after themselves. So far, while Americans are unable to afford groceries, health care, or child care, Donald Trump has been pouring money into endless vanity projects — renaming the Kennedy Center the Trump-Kennedy Center, renaming the Institute of Peace the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, slapping his face onto National Park passes …
Not to mention putting his name on new things like the Trump Accounts, Trump-class USS Defiant battleship, the Trump Gold Card (the thing where rich people from other countries can pay $1 million for an expedited VISA), TrumpRx, coins with his face on them even though he’s not dead yet (allegedly).
“It’s no secret that President Trump is undermining democracy and moving this country toward authoritarianism. Part of that strategy is to create the myth of the ‘Great Leader’ by naming public buildings after himself — something that dictators have done throughout history,” Sanders said. “For Trump to put his name on federal buildings is arrogant and it is illegal. We must put an end to this narcissism — and that’s what this bill does.”
It’s true. No other sitting US president has gone around slapping his names on things all over the place, because we rightfully skeeve that, as a nation. Or at least we used to. Imagine if Obama had done that? They’d have exploded. Hell, Trump himself was just recently very deeply outraged by his own false claim that Obama has the term Obamacare trademarked and charges the US government $40 million a year in royalties (he obviously does not). Obama, notably, did not even make up calling the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare.” Republicans did that because they thought it would be a bad thing.
“Our country desperately deserves leaders focused on working for the people — not their own ego or narcissism. This necessary legislation prohibits the naming, or renaming, of any federal building or land in the name of a sitting president. And even more importantly, at a time when Americans can’t afford to put food on the table, pay their rent, or afford health care, this bill prohibits the use of any federal funds for these meaningless vanity projects,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said.
Fair point.
Little bit of Devil’s advocate here, though. While Trump naming everything after himself gives me the creeps and it pains me to see taxpayer money spent on this nonsense … a part of me is thinking that it’s a less destructive hobby for him than, say, bombing random ships and bringing imperialism back. I mean, so far he’s been able to multitask, but what if we just distracted him with these easily reversible vanity projects for the rest of his term? Has he considered putting a golden bust of himself in every classroom in the nation? Well, perhaps he should get on that! (And then the schools can just melt them down once it’s over in order to buy history books that acknowledge that slavery happened again.)
Still, there are better and more productive things on which we could be spending $125 million, plus however much this other nonsense is going to cost us. For instance, we could give it to all of the veterans who lost their jobs in the DOGE purge, in the name of eliminating the “waste, fraud and abuse” Trump and friends are clearly so very concerned about. Hmm?
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
In a perfect and just world (and it's gonna happen!), the only thing that should rightfully have Trump's name on it is his tombstone.
The Mad King isn’t “multi-tasking” by putting his name on federal buildings and picking out marble for his stupid ballroom. Those are the only things he’s actually doing, while outsourcing the real work of destroying the country to Stephen Miller and various cabinet secretaries.