\n<\/p>\n
Two of Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s favorite pastimes (giving things new names<\/a> and doing stuff that annoys people who didn\u2019t vote for him<\/a>) converged last week when the president signed an executive order renaming<\/a> the Department of Defense the \u201cDepartment of War.\u201d His unsurprising rationale for doing so? \u201cIt used to be called the Department of War and it had a stronger sound,\u201d he explained<\/a> to reporters while teasing the news in August. Under the old name, the president said, \u201cWe won World War I, we won World War II. We won everything before that and in between.\u201d The signing was followed by a series of remarks from Secretary Pete Hegseth,<\/strong> who suggested it was because the Department of War became the Department of Defense in 1949 that the US failed to win the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War. Hegseth also declared that moving forward, the US armed services will be about \u201cmaximum lethality, not tepid legality,\u201d which the International Criminal Court at The Hague might have something to say about.<\/p>\n The name change was, of course, just the latest in a series of rebrands Trump has ordered since his second term began. On his first day in office, he signed<\/a> an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and changing Denali back to Mount McKinley. This summer, he demanded<\/a> the owners of the NFL\u2019s Washington Commanders and the MLB\u2019s Cleveland Guardians change their teams\u2019 names back to the Redskins and the Indians, respectively. (They have not.) In February, Hegseth announced that Fort Liberty would once again be known as Fort Bragg (in 2020, Congress passed an amendment to remove the names of Confederate officers from Army bases); months later, Hegseth ordered<\/a> a ship bearing gay-rights icon Harvey Milk\u2019s name to be changed to one honoring World War II officer Oscar V. Peterson. Meanwhile, GOP representatives have introduced legislation to change the name of Washington Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport, and to make the Kennedy Center Opera House the First Lady Melania Trump<\/strong> Opera House.<\/p>\n It seems unlikely that Trump is going to stop with the Department of War, Mount Mckinley, and the Gulf of America. Other things he could very likely be itching to rebrand include:<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The USS John S. McCain,<\/em> a Naval destroyer named for the late senator whom Trump trashed for years, even after the guy had died,<\/a> and which someone in the White House believed needed to be hidden from Trump\u2019s line of sight<\/a> (new name, probably: the USS I Like People Who Weren\u2019t Captured<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Rose Garden (new name, probably: Club Mar-a-Lago Washington<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Department of Health and Human Services (new name, probably: the Department of Vaccines Bad<\/a>, Raw Milk Good<\/a>, or, for brevity, the Department of Measles<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Department of Education (new name, probably: the Department of No More Education<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Kennedy Space Center (new name, probably: the Donald \u201cGenius<\/a>\u201d Trump Space Center)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (new name, probably: the Centers for You Didn\u2019t Really Want Your Medicaid, Did You<\/a>? Or, if Joni Ernst<\/strong> gets a say: the Centers for We\u2019re All Going to Die Anyway<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Harvard\u2019s John F. Kennedy School of Government (new name, probably: Melania Trump\u2019s School of Government\u2026could be a condition of negotiations<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Federal Reserve (new name, probably: QUIT NOW, JEROME POWELL<\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Lincoln Memorial (new name, probably: the Donald Trump Had It Worse<\/a>, Y\u2019know, Memorial)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Vietnam Veterans Memorial (new name, probably: Bone Spurs<\/a> Are a Real, Very Serious Condition, How Dare You Suggest Otherwise? Memorial)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n