Late last year, the public learned that the Trump administration’s drive to rebrand the Department of Defense as the “Department of War” would be, among other things, very expensive. In fact, an NBC News report said the initiative “could cost as much as $2 billion” in taxpayer money.
While that should’ve brought the conversation to a rather rapid end, the Pentagon nevertheless formally asked Congress two months ago to codify the president’s preferred branding in federal law.
Unfortunately, Republican lawmakers are taking this unserious effort quite seriously.
Last week, the House Armed Services Committee took up the idea, which Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the panel’s top Democrat, mocked as “one of the dumbest things that has been done by this administration.” Soon after, the GOP majority nevertheless voted to rename the department, adding the idea to a must-pass spending bill.
This week, the Senate Armed Services Committee did the same thing. Politico reported:
The Senate Armed Services Committee voted this week to formally change the Pentagon’s name to the Department of War, moving a significant step closer to solidifying President Donald Trump’s rebrand of the Defense Department as permanent.
The move came during the committee’s closed-door deliberations over its defense policy bill, according to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who announced the name change in explaining his vote against the legislation.
“It’s a juvenile move that sadly describes the reality of a president who has abandoned meaningful diplomacy in favor of starting doubtful wars in multiple locations and threatening even more,” the Virginia Democrat said in a statement.