President Donald Trump speaks standing between Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a press conference after the plenary session at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)AP

In giving a little history lesson during the NATO summit on, President Donald Trump wondered aloud about giving Secretary of State Pete Hegseth an old cabinet position title last used nearly 80 years ago.

“You know, it used to be called secretary of war,” Trump said, referring to secretary of state.

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Under President Harry Truman, Kenneth Royall was the last cabinet member to be known as the secretary of war after the department was abolished in 1947.

The secretary of war was replaced by the secretary of the army and the secretary of the air force while the secretary of defense was created.

Royall became secretary of the army.

Trump appeared to have the recent strikes on Iran on his mind when he thought aloud of changing secretary of defense to secretary of war.

“Maybe for a couple of weeks we’ll call it that because we feel like warriors,” Trump told reporters at the NATO summit at The Hague. “Used to be called secretary of war.

“In fact, if you look at the old building, next to the White House,” Trump continued, “you could see where it used to be secretary of war.”

The secretary of defense replaced the secretary of war as a cabinet-level position.

“Then we became politically correct and they called it secretary of defense,” Trump said.

“Maybe we’ll have to start thinking about changing it,” he said, “but we feel that way.”