Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump rechristened the Department of Defense as the War Department. To drive the point home, the White House X account shared an image of the president squatting in sunglasses and a cavalry hat against a backdrop of helicopters, explosions, and the Chicago skyline—a parody of the film Apocalypse Now. The caption read, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago [sic] about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.”

That same week the U.S. military killed the crew of an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boat in international waters. Asked on X whether the strike amounted to a war crime, the vice president, a Yale-trained lawyer, replied, “I don’t give a shit what you call it.”

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump rechristened the Department of Defense as the War Department. To drive the point home, the White House X account shared an image of the president squatting in sunglasses and a cavalry hat against a backdrop of helicopters, explosions, and the Chicago skyline—a parody of the film Apocalypse Now. The caption read, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago [sic] about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.”

That same week the U.S. military killed the crew of an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boat in international waters. Asked on X whether the strike amounted to a war crime, the vice president, a Yale-trained lawyer, replied, “I don’t give a shit what you call it.”

However, it wasn’t Trump’s drone strike that drew the most ire but his decision to rename the Department of Defense. To be clear, the executive order directs the government to use “Department of War” and “Secretary of War” as secondary titles, but they are effectively the primary names. Stripping out “Department of Defense” entirely will require Congress to pass legislation. Maybe lawmakers will oblige, but at this point it’s almost a distinction without a difference. After all, why would a president wait on Congress for a name change when they don’t wait on Congress to wage acts of war abroad?........

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