Trump flexes USS Defiant muscle ahead of China trip, 250th anniversary.
President Donald Trump started off Christmas week by making good on longtime promises to revive America’s shipbuilding industry and the US Navy’s battleships. Trump announced from his Mar-a-Lago residence the creation of a “Golden Fleet” with a new Trump-class battleship as its centerpiece. Flanked by Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the president said construction will https://www.libertynation.com/reality-drives-the-new-department-of-war/ The 30,000-to-40,000-ton battleships will be built in the United States, Trump said, and will create thousands of American jobs. The president has long lamented the size of the Navy’s fleet and the age of the ships. In Trump style, he reflected on America’s naval greats and promised the Golden Fleet would outshine them:
“You know, you used to build the Iowa, the Missouri, the Wisconsin, the Alabama, many others. We had big battleships. These are bigger, but they will have 100 times the … they’ll be 100 times the force, the power, and there’s never been anything like these ships. These have been under design consideration for a long time. And it started with me in my first term because I said, ‘Why aren’t we doing battleships like we used to?’ And these are the best in the world.”
The USS Missouri was the last built – in 1944. It was one of four Iowa-class battleships completed and commissioned during World War II, reportedly among the largest on the seas, and is known for serving as the site of the surrender that ended the war with Japan.
The president said that while the United States has built new warships over the years, they were smaller and not equal to his policy of peace through strength. In addition, Trump said, there would be a new superior class of aircraft carrier.
First in Fleet of Battleships
Renderings of the battleships were displayed behind the president as he made the announcement. One depicted the first of the Trump class: the USS Defiant. The Navy will lead in the design, and construction is expected to start in the 2030s. It will be “the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans,” said Phelan, adding:
“Now when a conflict arises, you’re going to ask us two questions: where is the carrier, and where is the battleship.”
The Trump-class battleship will be the first-ever with guided-missile capability to deploy nuclear and hypersonic weapons, according to the Pentagon. “They’ll help maintain American military supremacy, revive the American ship building industry, and inspire fear in America’s enemies all over the world,” Trump claimed.
National Security Focus
Trump’s speech on the Golden Fleet came on the same day that Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced he was pausing the leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the United States, citing national security risks identified by the Department of War, and the Department of Homeland Security tripled the $1,000 incentive for illegal aliens who self-deport to a $3,000 stipend, along with a free flight back to their country.
In rebuilding the Navy and constructing the new Trump class of battleships, the president is flexing America’s muscles in several of his key policy themes: America First economy, bolstering the US relationship with allies in the Indo-Pacific region, and securing the Western Hemisphere. The move comes on the heels of the Navy and Coast Guard seizing two sanctioned oil tankers near the coast of Venezuela as Trump turns up the heat on the country’s self-appointed dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Trump often artfully weaves bold statements with subtle signals. He unveiled the Golden Fleet hours after he revived the conversation about Greenland with a post on Truth Social:
“I am pleased to announce that I am appointing the GREAT Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, as the United States Special Envoy to Greenland. Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World. Congratulations Jeff!”
While Trump reportedly said the Golden Fleet was not meant to counter China, the announcement came ahead of his planned visit to China in April and is sure to impress Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Above all, and perhaps by design, the coming new Trump class of battleships acts as an exclamation point to the end of the first year of his second presidency that ushered in a rapid-fire sequence of policy wins – including a secure border, mass deportations, some 62,000 migrant children rescued from sex trafficking and forced labor, the release of hostages, trillions of dollars in foreign investments in the United States, and negotiated peace agreements – and just ahead of the 250th anniversary of American independence.
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