President Donald Trump’s name is being attached to a new class of U.S. battleships that will have nuclear capabilities.
Making the announcement at an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Navy Secretary John Phelan referred to the warships as “Trump-class battleships" and said a forthcoming vessel dubbed the USS Defiant will be “the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans.”
Trump’s eponymous battleships will be armed with guns and missiles, as well as hypersonic weapons, electronic rail guns and high-powered lasers.
“We envision that these ships will be the first of a whole new class of battleships to be produced in the years to come,” Trump said, noting an eventual goal of 20 to 25 new battleships.
Phelan said the battleships will also carry the “nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile."
The last time the U.S. used battleships in combat was in 1991, during the first Gulf War against Iraq.
"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?'" Trump said Monday.
The Navy is tasked with leading the design of the new battleships, which are expected to be ready early next decade, according to the Defense Department. Trump said he will also play a role, "because I’m a very aesthetic person."
Signifiers of Trump, from his likeness to his name and his birthday, have become more commonplace during his second term.
Last week, a board handpicked by Trump voted to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington the Trump-Kennedy Center. Trump’s name was also added to the U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters in Washington this month, and the Interior Department the Interior Department in a video last month displayed a national park pass for 2026 that will bear Trump’s image. The legality of some of those moves, however, faces legal challenges.
Trump said the new battleships are not meant as a deterrent to any one country.
"It’s a counter to everybody. It’s not China. We get along great with China," he said. "It’s just everybody. You don’t know who comes along, but we just wanted peace through strength. Hopefully we never have to use them, but there will never be anything built like these."
