Trump Says U.S. Military Has ‘Never Fought to Win’ Since World War II

The New York Times ^ | Sept. 5, 2025, 8:36 p.m. ET | Erica L. Green

[E. Pluribus Unum]

As he signed an order recognizing the Defense Department as the “Department of War,” President Trump said that the country “could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct.”

President Trump signed an executive order on Friday that ceremonially recognized the Defense Department as the “Department of War,” a name that was dropped after World War II and that the president claimed had caused the country to enter wars it “never fought to win.”

“We won World War II. We won everything before, and as I said, we won everything in between,” Mr. Trump said at an event in the Oval Office, where he signed the order. “And we were very strong, but we never fought to win. We just didn’t fight to win.”

Mr. Trump argued that the name, which was changed by President Harry S. Truman to combine all of branches of the military, had been changed because the country “decided to go woke.”

“I think the Department of War sends a signal,” Mr. Trump said. The change, he argued, was a “much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.”

He added: “We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct, or wokey, and we just fight forever.”

The Department of War was established by Congress under President George Washington in 1789, just months after the Constitution was ratified. Mr. Truman changed the agency’s name as part of the National Security Act he signed into law in 1947, which merged the Navy and War departments and a newly independent Air Force into a single organization. Congress established the Department of Defense name in 1949.

Mr. Trump said that he anticipated pushing to codify the name change into law...

[hoosierham]

The German soldiers would have been just as dead if they had fought to their last breath in Stalingrad,rather than being executed after surrender.
Hitler was a lousy military strategist.

[MayflowerMadam]

There’s money to be made in not winning wars.

[Ronald77]

And that,is thanks to the Democratic party policy. No Republican president shall win a war started by democrats.

[Fai Mao]

That was the objective. to restore the border to the post-WW2 Partition. It was never about invading the PRC or conquoring NK

[CodeToad]

We failed to fight to win, as Trump said. We stopped short of ending the war.

[SaxxonWoods]

I have long thought exactly that.

[kosciusko51]

And we used overwhelming force in Grenada.

[Loud Mime]

Finally, a proper answer.

[vis a vis]

Amen

[Fiji Hill]

When we invaded Grenada, I was overjoyed. It was the first Communist country that had been liberated since Augusto Pinochet ousted Chile's red regime five years earlier. I really didn't think Reagan would have the courage to pull the trigger, but he did.

Grenada joined the Soviet bloc in 1979 when a Communist coup led by Maurice Bishop overthrew its government led by Eric Gairy. Gairy, who, among other things, believed in UFOs, is mentioned in this song, a view from left field of the numerous coups and revolutions of 1979.

(Wanted) Dead or Alive--The Manhattan transfer (1980)

[Owen]

No evidence of execution. They surrendered because they had not eaten in weeks. Then they were marched to POW camps and got very little food, because the Soviets also had very little. It’s not like they laid down their arms and the Soviets rushed out to them with food.

They died. Huge %. But it was starvation and consequent illness in the Russian winter. Not bullets up against the wall.

Same sort of myth about Bataan. Malaria killed en masse. Both sides. Quinine scarcity. At the end there was no big battle. The Japanese just brought fresh, uninfected troops in and they just walked in. Marched them off to POW camps, and they died enroute because there was no quinine. There was no up against the wall shooting going on.

[EvilCapitalist]

General George S. Patton.

[ansel12]

A little known fact about Grenada ia that when that guy blew up the barracks in Lebanon, the invasion of Grenada was already taking place and 47 hours later ground troops were engaged in battle there.

[lurk]

A late friend was a Marine pilot in Korea and Vietnam. When he saw the list of places they were not allowed to bomb in North Vietnam, he knew the game was fixed.

[Brilliant]

Well he’s right about that. Ukraine for example.

[SunkenCiv]

• LAPD ends protection of former Vice President Kamala Harris amid criticism over diverting cops, sources say [09/06/2025]
• Checked out: Biden staff scrambled to make thousands of pardons look presidential [09/06/2025]
• CBS forbids editing of 'Face the Nation' interviews after complaints from Noem [09/06/2025]
• LAPD yanks cops off Kamala Harris' mansion after uproar over diverted patrols [09/06/2025]
• Dead end: Socialism is 200 years old and is leading the Democrats to doom [09/06/2025]
• West Point alumni group cancels award ceremony for Tom Hanks [09/06/2025]
• School Choice Surges Despite Crusade by Teachers Unions [09/06/2025]
• It Is Time to Sell Public Broadcasting's Airwaves [09/06/2025]
• President Trump Closes the Overton Window [09/06/2025]
• The Illustrated Spygate Scandal [09/06/2025]

[Theophilus]

We had to stop Desert Storm after 100 hours because Bush got tired of winning. He refused to recognize that Saddam was an intollerable evil because he does not believe in evil.

Apparently, President Trump NEVER gets tired of winning. Evil touched Trump on the ear and he responded with Fight Fight Fight!

[MinorityRepublican]

We had to stop Desert Storm after 100 hours because Bush got tired of winning. He refused to recognize that Saddam was an intollerable evil because he does not believe in evil.

Bush 41 was right. We had a mission objective during Desert Storm. Kick Iraq out of Kuwait. Once that was done, it was time to go home.

[FreedomPoster]

With the Department of War and the Department of the Navy.

Any questions?

[hoosierham]

So the stories of GIs forced to kill sick comrades on the Bataan death march were lies? Or the Japanese bayonetting wounded men?

The Russians executing any German soldier who had certain ID like Nazi party or SS.Nikita Kruschev telling “they are in the cold Sovi we t ground”?

War is uvly and pretending atrocities don’t happen is dishonest.

The Old Testament tells of slaugherting ALL the people men and women of a city by the victorious Israelites sparing only virgin girls.

Humans are really good at killing other humans.