Trump has not specifically addressed how he’ll reshape the Department of Defense, but it’s likely he’ll try to reenact the policies of his first administration once he’s inaugurated.

During a recent rally before the election, the former president promised to restore the original names of military bases, which the department decided to rename during Biden’s administration. In early October, at a campaign event in North Carolina near Fort Liberty, which was formerly named Fort Bragg, a soldier asking Trump a question referred to the base by its new name and was booed by the crowd.

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“I think I just learned the secret to winning absolutely and by massive margins. I’m going to promise to you — as I said at the beginning — that we’re gonna change the name back to Fort Bragg. Because I think when that word gets out, I just see — look when this great soldier accidentally said Fort Liberty, and he almost got booed the hell out of the place,” Trump said in response to the crowd’s jeers.

The U.S. Army renamed nine bases during the Biden administration, all of which had names associated with Confederate leaders.

Additionally, during the Biden administration, the department emphasized diversity and inclusion, including at the military service academies, which are likely targets for the second Trump administration. During Trump’s first administration, he banned transgender individuals from serving openly in the military, which is a policy Biden undid during his first couple months in office.

The Pentagon also decided, in response to the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe V. Wade, to announce a policy that would reimburse servicemembers and/or family members who need to travel out-of-state due to local laws to get medical procedures, such as abortion. The department refused to change the policy even when Republican lawmakers blocked the promotions of defense officials to force their hand.

“We’re not going to change our policy on ensuring that every single service member has equitable access to reproductive healthcare,” Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in August 2023. “If you are a service member stationed in a state that has rolled back or restricted healthcare access, you are often stationed there because you were assigned there. It is not that you chose to go there. And so a service member in Alabama deserves to have the same access to healthcare as a service member in California, as a service member stationed in Korea.”

Republicans were critical of the department’s policy, and Trump could overturn it. The policy was utilized 12 times from June through December 2023, and it incurred a total cost for the Pentagon of $40,791.20, Singh said in March 2024.

Trump, during his first term, was critical of NATO and of members not reaching the defense spending requirements. It’s unclear how exactly he’ll go about handling the alliance during his second administration, though there’s a lot on the line for Ukraine, in particular, which is dependent upon U.S. military support for continuing its defense against Russia’s invasion.

Trump has said he would be able to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours, though experts are skeptical as to how he could make that happen without pushing Ukraine to make significant concessions that they have so far been unwilling to make.

Critics of Trump have pointed to his rhetoric as a concern for how he could use the military. In the lead-up to the election, he called Harris supporters “the enemy from within,” and he suggested the military could have been called in to handle any unrest on Election Day.

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The Senate confirmed two of Trump’s secretary of defense choices during his first term, Gen. Jim Mattis and Dr. Mark Esper, neither of whom supported his reelection bid. He will likely pick a secretary who more closely aligns with his worldview and can enact a department in that vision, such as Christopher Miller, who briefly served as acting secretary under Trump after he fired Esper.

“I think President Trump has learned the key is getting people around you who will do your bidding, who will not push back, who will implement what you want to do. And I think he’s talked about that, his acolytes have talked about that, and I think loyalty will be the first litmus test,” Esper said in October.