Letters from an American - September 5, 2025

Episode Date: September 7, 2025

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September 5th, 2025. Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, although the 1947 abandonment of the Department of War name was not simply a matter of substituting a new name for the original one. In 1947, to bring order and efficiency to U.S. military forces, Congress renamed the Department of War as the Department of the Army, then brought it, together with the Department of the Navy, and a new Department of the Air Force, into a newly established National Military Establishment, overseen by the Secretary of Defense. In 1949, Congress replaced the national military establishment name, whose initials sounded unfortunately like NME, with Department of Defense. The new name emphasized that the Allied powers of World War II would join together to focus on deterring wars by standing against offensive wars, launched by big countries against their

smaller neighbors. Although Trump told West Point graduates this year that the military's job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, any time, and any place, in fact, the stated mission of the Department of Defense is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security. As Amanda Castro and Hannah Perry of Newsweek note, In August, Trump said he wanted the change because defense is too defensive. We want to be offensive, too, if we have to be. By law, Congress must approve the change, which Politico estimates will cost billions of dollars. Although Trump said, I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't think we even need that. By this evening, name plates and signage bearing the new name had gone up in government offices, and the U.R.

for the Defense Department website had been changed to war.gov. Secretary of Defense Pete Hagseth has pushed the change because he sees it as part of his campaign to spread a warrior ethos at the Pentagon. Yesterday, he said the name change was part of restoring intentionality to the use of force. We're going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.

violent effect, not politically correct. We're going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So this war department, Mr. President, just like America, is back. In 1947, when the country dropped the war department name, the chief of staff of the U.S. Army, the highest ranking officer on active duty, was five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is unusual for anyone to suggest that Eisenhower, who led the Allied troops in World War II, was insufficiently committed to military strength. Indeed, the men who changed the name to Defense Department and tried to create a rules-based international order did so precisely because war was not a game to them.

Having seen the carnage of war not just on the battlefield, but among civilians who faced firebombing, death camps, homelessness, starvation, and the obscenity of atomic weapons, they hoped to find a way to make sure insecure, power-hungry men could not start another war easily. The movement conservatives who took over the Republican Party in the 1980s leaned heavily on a mythologized image of the American cowboy as a strong independent individual who wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone. That image supported decades of attacks on the modern government as socialism, and it has now metastasized in the MAGA movement to suggest that the men in charge of the government should be able to do whatever they want. Just what that looks like

was made clear on Wednesday when the Trump administration launched a strike on a boat carrying 11 civilians, it claimed, were smuggling drugs. Covering the story, the New York Times reported that Pentagon officials were still working Wednesday on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters. Today, David Phillips and Matthew Cole reported another military strike approved by Trump in his first term that was previously undisclosed. In the New York Times, they reported that in early 2019, Trump okayed a Navy SEAL mission to plant an electronic device in North Korea. The plan went awry when their activity near the shore attracted a civilian fishing boat with two or three men diving for shellfish.

The seals killed the men on the boat, punctured their lungs with knives so the bodies would sink, abandon the mission, and returned to base. The administration never notified the gang of eight, the eight leaders of Congress who must be briefed on intelligence activities unless the president thinks it is essential to limit access to information about a covert operation. The gang of eight is made up of the leaders of both parties in each chamber of Congress, as well as the chairs and ranking minority members of the Intelligence Committee of each chamber. military officials appear concerned that Trump might continue to send personnel into precarious missions. Those who were involved in or knew about the North Korea mission said they were speaking up now because they are worried that such failures are often hidden and that if the public only hears about successful operations, they may underestimate the extreme risks American forces undertake. Trump's promise that his demonstrations of strength would make the U.S. a leader on the international stage

is also falling apart. Barakravid and Dave Lawler of Axios reported that in a conversation yesterday with European Union leaders, Trump backed away from his promises to increase pressure on Russia to stop its war against Ukraine, and instead told the leaders they must do it themselves. Also yesterday, the Financial Times reported that the administration will no longer help to fund military training and infrastructure in Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, Baltic nations vulnerable to Russian incursions. National Security scholar Tom Nichols commented, I am adamant about people not falling prey to conspiracy theories about Trump and the Russians, but this is a classic moment where it's understandable to ask,

if the Russians owned him, how would his actions be any different? The administration has not briefed Congress on the change. Earlier this week, on September 3rd, leaders Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, met in Beijing to celebrate the anniversary of the formal surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. The day before, Putin describes Xi as a dear friend

and said the ties between the two leaders are at, unprecedented level. Trump did not appear to take the meeting well. He posted at Xi, reminding him of the massive amount of support and blood that the United States gave to China in order to help it secure its freedom from a very unfriendly foreign invader, and adding, please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un as you conspire against the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump. India's president Narendra Modi also met with she this week as Beijing continued to push the idea that it is now the head of a new world order. Trump responded, looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together.

Reality is also intruding on the Republicans' insistence that only they know how to run the economy. Although Trump inherited a booming economy, he insisted that it was actually in terrible shape and that his tariffs would bring back manufacturing and make life better for those left behind by 40 years of economic policy that concentrated wealth at the top of society. In fact, data released Tuesday show that U.S. manufacturing has contracted for six straight months. Economic journalist Catherine Rampal noted that the U.S. has few years. fewer manufacturing jobs today than it had before the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The country has lost 78,000 manufacturing jobs this year. 72% of Texas manufacturers say the tariffs

are hurting their businesses. Only 3.7% think the tariffs are helping them. Yesterday's immigration raid on a Hyundai Motor Battery Plant in Georgia is unlikely to send a reassuring message to manufacturers. U.S. agents arrested 475 individuals, more than 300 of whom were South Korea nationals. Included in the sweep were business travelers. In August, Hyundai said it would invest $26 billion in the U.S. through 2028. Today's new jobs report, the first of the first. The first since Trump fired the previous director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, after accusing her of rigging the numbers for political reasons, was poor. It showed that the U.S. added just 22,000 jobs in August, far below the expected 75,000, while the jobs numbers for June and July

were revised downward by 21,000 jobs. The numbers show that the economy is faltering. Just before the report was due to be released, the BLS website went down. An unfortunate reminder that the Bureau is in turmoil. Today, M. Steck and Andrew Kaczynski of CNN confirmed and expanded an August story by David Gilbert of Wired, revealing what appears to be an old Twitter account belonging to E.J. Antony, Trump's pick to run the BLS. The account posted conspiracy theories and sexist, racist, and homophobic attacks and parroted Trump's talking points. Last night, when asked if he would trust today's job numbers, Trump answered, well, we're going to have to see what the numbers, I don't know, they come out tomorrow.

But the real numbers that I'm talking about are going to be whatever it is. But we'll be in a year from now when these monstrous, huge, beautiful places, their palaces of genius, and when they start opening up, you're seeing, I think you'll see job numbers that are absolutely incredible. Right now, it's a lot of construction numbers, but you're going to see job numbers like our country has never seen before. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss. Thank you.