Trump Accuses Harry Truman of Going ‘Woke’ Over Department of War Name Change
President Donald Trump accused those responsible for renaming the Department of War of going “woke.”
In recent days, Trump has repeated the popular misconception that the Department of War was renamed the Department of Defense after World War II. However, the Department of War, which until 1947 referred to the U.S. Army, was actually renamed to the Department of the Army under the newly created Department of Defense. The move was one of several provisions in the 1947 National Security Act, which was passed by Congress before President Harry Truman signed it in July of that year.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order announcing that “this Department should once again be known as the Department of War and the Secretary should be known as the Secretary of War.” However, statutorily, only Congress can change the name of the department.
Speaking at a dinner with Republican lawmakers in the Rose Garden on Friday night, Trump took a victory lap over the name change. While doing so, he accused those responsible for dropping the Department of War of going woke:
So, today I gave [reporters] about a three-hour press conference on changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, because you know, we won World War I, World War II, everything in between and everything in front of it. It was called the Department of War
And then we went woke after the Second World War. Incredible victory. And we said, “Let’s change it to Defense.”
And look. War means something. It means we’re not gonna have any problems. We don’t want problems with people. And I’ve kept us out of wars. I’ve solved wars. But the way you solve wars is through strength. And that’s what we are. We make the best equipment in the world. We have the best soldiers. We have the most powerful military in any in the world. We rebuilt it in my first term, as you know. We rebuilt it in our first term.
Exactly one year after signing the “woke” National Security Act of 1947, Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the armed forces.
Watch above via C-SPAN.
