U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order seeking to rename the Pentagon from the Department of Defense to the Department of War, and said he would ask Congress to make the change official.
"I think it sends a message of victory. I think it sends a message of strength, very strong, much stronger than anyone would really understand," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
The U.S. president said he would work with Congress to codify the change, but claimed it is unclear if lawmakers would have to act to make it official.
"We're going with it very strongly. There's a question as to whether or not they have to, but we'll put it before Congress," he said.
Meanwhile, Trump also warned Caracas that its jets would be shot down if they threatened U.S. forces, after Washington said two Venezuelan military planes buzzed an American naval vessel.
"If they do put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked what steps he would take if there were further incidents.
The president also said the U.S. is not talking about regime change in Venezuela, as the United States ordered an additional 10 stealth fighter jets to a growing military buildup in the Caribbean.
"We're not talking about that, but we are talking about the fact that you had an election which was a very strange election, to put it mildly," Trump said.
He had been asked by reporters about a claim made by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this week that the United States was "seeking a regime change through military threat."
Reuters reported earlier on Friday, citing sources, that the Trump administration had ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to a Puerto Rico airfield to conduct operations against drug cartels, sources say.
The new deployment comes on top of an already bristling U.S. military presence in the southern Caribbean as Trump carries out a campaign pledge to crack down on groups funneling drugs into the United States.
The disclosure about the F-35s came just hours after the Pentagon accused Venezuela of a "highly provocative" flight on Thursday by fighter jets near a U.S. Navy warship.
