President Trump on Monday introduced plans to construct a brand new fleet of Navy battleships, in what he known as the Pentagon’s “Golden Fleet.”
The president mentioned he permitted plans to start developing “two brand-new, very giant, largest we have ever constructed, battleships.” He later mentioned he expects to construct a complete of 10 ships in brief order, and in the end 20 to 25. He made the announcement flanked by renderings of ships that had been known as “Trump Class.”
Talking from his Mar-a-Lago property, Mr. Trump mentioned, “every certainly one of these would be the largest battleship within the historical past of our nation, the most important battleship within the historical past of the world, ever constructed.” The president made the announcement alongside Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan.
“As commander-in-chief, it’s my nice honor to announce that I’ve permitted a plan for the Navy to start the development of two brand-new, very giant, largest we have ever constructed, battleships,” he mentioned.
“There’s by no means been something like these ships,” the president continued. “These have been beneath design consideration for a very long time. And it began with me in my first time period, as a result of I mentioned, ‘Why aren’t we doing battleships like we used to?'”
The president mentioned the U.S. is “desperately in want of ships” as a result of a few of the United States’ ships “have gotten previous and drained and out of date.” The Trump administration is making an attempt to deal with U.S. shipbuilding shortfalls by a number of administrations, and beef up america’ shipbuilding provide chain.
The Navy’s Phelan introduced plans final week to construct a brand new class of warship as part of the president’s “Golden Fleet.” In a video he posted Friday to social media, Phelan mentioned the aim for the brand new Frigate class is to have American-designed ships made by People, with an eye fixed on 2028 for launching the primary ship.
“We’re carried out admiring the issue. Our focus is on readiness,” Phelan mentioned within the video. “With a wise, fast, reasonably priced construct, we are going to ship the capability our warfighters want.”
The president’s announcement Monday comes because the Trump administration has constructed up america’ elevated naval presence in Latin America amid tensions with Venezuela. The U.S. on Saturday introduced the seizure of a second vessel in worldwide waters, this one most just lately docked off the coast of Venezuela, after the president introduced a “blockade” of all oil tankers coming in or in a foreign country.
The president is spending the Christmas vacation at Mar-a-Lago, with a mixture of official occasions and {golfing} outings.
