'Wants to sound like a dictator': Conservative slams Trump over newest executive order

04 September

U.S. President Donald Trump looks on, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump's decision to rename the Defense Department to the "Department of War" is being fervently criticized by multiple journalists and commentators.

A White House official confirmed Thursday that Trump planned to sign an executive order on Friday to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, allowing the use of that name as a secondary title for the time being.

During a Thursday appearance on CNN, David Axelrod — who was a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama – said the decisions shows that "the president is really intent on turning the clock back to the 19th century."

"So, the Department of War, and tariffs and spheres of influence, where countries just grabbed their neighbors and and gobble up their territory, and we do away with the civil service and so on. But I think he likes the sound of it as much as he likes military parades. The whole militarism thing is, he thinks, is a good reality show," Axelrod told host Jake Tapper on CNN.

Conservative Jonah Goldberg also spoke during the segment. "A lot of this has more to do with appearances he wants. It's like changing the name of the Department of Defense, the Department of War, sounds really macho and costs almost nothing. It's just easy," Goldberg said of Trump.

He went on to say that Trump "definitely wants to sound like a dictator and seem like a dictator, but he actually falls short often from actually crossing the lines."

"Like, he's not betrayed the Supreme Court yet. His flag burning amendment thing was actually a nothingburger. If he actually read the text, but he kind of counts that his biggest fans and his biggest foes will take the bait and take him at his word. And that creates a whole politics that are to his advantage," Goldberg said.

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