President Donald Trump said the United States "never fought to win" any war since World War II as he signed an order renaming the Defense Department the Department of War.

"We won the First World War, we won the Second World War, we won everything before that and in between, and then we decided to go woke," Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office on Sept. 6.

"We should have won every war. We could have won every war," he added.

The former Defense Department got its name in 1949 after then-President Harry Truman consolidated the Navy, Air Force and "War Department," which referred to what is now the Army.

Changing the name across the Pentagon will likely carry a hefty price tag. It's also unclear if Trump can officially make the change without congressional approval, although the White House is searching for a way, according to reports.

Trump told reporters the United States would have won every war since World War II "easily, with a couple little changes," but that those wars had dragged on "forever."

Trump has often touted as successes his efforts to resolve global conflicts, even though the main two wars he is focused on bringing to a close – the Hama-Israel war and the Ukraine-Russia war – have continued to rage.

The Ukraine-Russia war had turned out to be "a little more difficult than I thought," he said as he signed the order.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says US 'never fought to win' wars post-World War II as he names 'Department of War'

Reporting by Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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