Commentary

In Defense Of NOT Rebranding War

by Joe Mandese , September 12, 2025

Like many of you probably have, I let Trump's decision to rebrand the Department of Defense to the Department of War roll off my back because -- given the insane number of stupid, newspeak initiatives he's flooded our zones with, this one felt like just another Trump being Trump, and not worth weighing in on because there are far more serious efforts afoot. Like undermining the Constitution, increasingly seizing more power as part of his play to overturn democracy as part of his slow-moving coup.

But I was reminded not just of the stupidity of the Department of Defense's rebrand, but of the underlying cost to we American taxpayers by an email I received from pro-veterans/pro-democracy advocacy group VoteVets.org this morning.

Subject-lined "A Billion Dollar Boondoggle Rebrand," the email goes on to note that changing the department's name "isn't just stupid, it's expensive," and estimates the price tag to be more than $1 billion taxpayer dollars.

The organization points out that it's not just a matter of changing some stationery letterheads, but overhauling the trade dress of "700,000 military facilities in 40 nations and all 50 states."

Newspeak messaging aside, VoteVets points out that the change will be:

A logistics nightmare.

A time suck.

A waste of resources.

Another boondoggle.

An expensive vanity project from the president responsible for driving up inflation, devaluing the dollar, increasing tariff taxes, stalling the economy and taking millions of dollars our of Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and the VA.

And did I mention stupid?

budgets, government, politics, rebranding

6 comments about "In Defense Of NOT Rebranding War".

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Mark Sutton from NHR, September 12, 2025 at 11:28 a.m.
"Like undermining the Constitution, increasingly seizing more power as part of his play to overturn democracy as part of his slow-moving coup."

There is no evidence of overturning democracy nor a coup.

This is just dangerous hyperbole that leads to violence against republicans/conservatives which you and your MP ilk seem to advocate.
Reply

Dan C. from MS Entertainment, September 12, 2025 at 11:34 a.m.

It's an executive order - legislation needs to be passed by Congress in order to make the actual change. So it's just ceremonial in people being referred to as "Secretary of War."

Secondly, it's pathetic that you just echo the garbage put out by a political newsletter trying to raise funds with no source for the estimate. There is not a single internal govt estimate about the costs of such a name change - they literally just pulled $1 billion out of nowhere and other outlets repeated it. And here you are just perpetuating it which is nothing more than sloppy reporting motivated by ideology.

Yes - it is stupid to get upset over things you don't actually investigate to see if they are true or not.

And the unfortunate, biggest media event took place two days ago and there is just silence from MP.

Again, stupid.

Kevin Killion from Stone House Systems, Inc., September 12, 2025 at 4:49 p.m.

www.followthemoney.org reports that VOTEVETS has given $2,175,973 to 195 different filers:

$1,660,973 to Democratic causes

$508,000 to causes with no party designated

$7,000 to Republican causes

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., September 12, 2025 at 5:03 p.m.

@Mark Sutton: Way to play the political violence card in the wake of political violence. You're the one bringing it up, and if you ask me, that IS dangerous. All I wrote was that Trump has been circumventing democracy and seizing power as part of slow-moving coup. I stand by that observation, but have never advocated violence against anyone. I advocate Americans use their constitutionally protected rights -- including freedom of speech and the right to vote -- in response. Nothing more. P.S. when you comment on MediaPost, you are part of its "ilk" too. We always have and always will be a forum for different points of view. But please refrain from invoking violent references out of nowhere. It's reckless.

Mark Sutton from NHR, September 15, 2025 at 5:58 p.m.

"All I wrote was that Trump has been circumventing democracy and seizing power as part of slow-moving coup"

And where is the evidence of that? Because whatever evidence you do provide I can say the same of Biden (aka ERA is now an amendment last year). Did you claim Biden was circumventing democracy and doing a coup? I must have missed that.

And didn't you remove my post saying we need "TRANS CONTROL" in your Minneapolis school shooting? So much for free speech, hypocrite.

Please ask Kenneth Fadner, a partisan Democrat, which MP columnist voted for Trump?

Also, please stop citing that Presidentr Trump is a dictator without evidence; you, Joe Mandese, are being reckless and invokig violence against Republicans and conservatives.

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., September 15, 2025 at 7:01 p.m.

@Mark Sutton: I think you're confused about what constitutes free speech in America. You have a constitutional right to say whatever you want with certain exceptions that violate other people's rights (ie. break laws). Your free speech rights, however, do not give you the right to say anything you want on MediaPost, which is an independent publishing company. We give our readers pretty free rein to comment and express any opinions they want so long as they are civil and don't violate our moderation rules, which include:

* No hate speech (why your "trans control" post was removed).

* Personal attacks (why I removed your previous comment about my mother) and also why you should not be personally attacking Ken Fadner either.

As for you disagreeing with me about Donald Trump, you are free to do that and even comment about it here. You can even ask me to stop it, but it's up to me to decide what I opine on, not you.

Lastly, a couple of quick fact checks:

1) I never said Trump was a dictator, though I think he clearly has aspirations of being one.

2) I never invoked violence against anyone, much less Republicans and conservatives.

Anyone who know me knows I would never condone violence against anyone for any reasons, including their political views.

The only one who keeps bringing that up is you, and if you continue to promote it we will continue to moderate it, because you will be in violation of our comment moderation policies and it's my job is to enforce them in order to create a safe environment for all the readers of MediaPost.