Trump Announces ‘Golden Fleet’ Battleships Named After Him
Trump unveils the Golden Fleet plan, featuring Trump-class warships to boost US naval power amid rising China shipbuilding dominance.
President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will launch a new series of heavily armed naval "battleships" named after him, as part of a new "Golden Fleet."
Construction of the Trump-class USS Defiant is expected to begin soon, and it will be capable of carrying a wide array of weapons. Trump said the first ships would be operational in two and a half years.
The announcement is part of President Trump's plan for a major expansion of the U.S. Navy, including both unmanned and manned vessels, ranging from large missile-armed battleships to smaller ships.
Officials have warned that the U.S. currently lags behind China in both shipbuilding capacity and overall production.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida on Monday, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Navy John Fellen, Trump said he had initially approved the construction of two new battleships, with plans to build up to 25.
"They will be the fastest, the biggest, and 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built," Trump said.
Trump said that once completed, these armed vessels would be capable of carrying hypersonic and "extremely lethal" weapons and would serve as the flagship vessels of the U.S. Navy.
Trump, who spoke while standing on either side of a poster displaying renderings of the "Trump Class" ships, said the vessels would be built domestically, and their construction would create "thousands" of jobs.
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Fellen said that Trump had specifically requested a "big, beautiful" battleship-type vessel as part of the fleet, which would also include dozens of support and transport ships. On December 19, the US Navy announced another new set of ships based on the US Coast Guard's Legend-class National Security Cutters.
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“Recent operations from the Red Sea to the Caribbean make this need undeniable – our inventory of small surface combatants is a third of what we need,” Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle said in a video statement about the new ships.
“We need more capable blue-water small combatants to bridge this gap and keep our [destroyer] ships focused on high-end fighting,” he added. A similar vessel, the Constellation-class frigate – which Trump approved during his first term – was canceled in 2024 after repeated delays and cost overruns.
According to reports, only two ships were expected to be delivered after approximately $2 billion (£1.49 billion) had been spent on the project.
US officials and defense analysts have repeatedly warned that the US lags behind its main potential maritime rival, China, in shipbuilding capacity.
This year, more than 60% of the world's orders went to Chinese shipyards, and its navy is already the world's largest.
Since returning to power in January, Trump has pledged to revitalize the American shipbuilding industry.
“We used to build a lot of ships. We don’t build as many now, but we’re going to be building ships very soon, very rapidly. It’s going to have a tremendous impact,” Trump said in March.
In October, Trump and Finnish President Alexander Stubb signed a deal under which the US will purchase 11 Finnish-designed icebreakers, with seven to be built in the US using Finnish expertise.
The president's announcement comes as US naval and air assets have increased in the Caribbean amid rising tensions with Venezuela. The United States began attacking ships suspected of carrying drugs in September, and these attacks have killed at least 100 people.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump claimed that the attacks on the ships had saved thousands of American lives by preventing deadly drugs from entering the United States.
These attacks have been criticized by some experts, who say they may violate international laws governing armed conflict.
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