Trump announces plan for new ‘battleships’ named after him under US Navy expansion

US President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States will commission a new series of heavily armed Navy “battleships” bearing his name as part of a revamped “Golden Fleet.”

Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago golf club alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Navy Secretary John Phelan, Trump said he had approved construction of two new “Trump Class USS Defiant” ships, with plans to build as many as 25.

“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Trump said, flanked by posters showing renderings of the proposed vessels.

He said the ships could be operational in about two-and-a-half years.

The announcement is part of Trump’s plan to expand the US Navy with both manned and unmanned vessels, including larger missile-armed warships and smaller craft.

Trump, who has previously criticised the appearance of US warships, said he would be personally involved in the designs.

“The US Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I’m a very aesthetic person,” he said.

Trump said the ships would displace more than 30,000 tons and incorporate artificial intelligence and directed-energy laser weapons.

“We haven’t built a battleship since 1994,” he said, calling the proposed ships “some of the most lethal surface warfare ships … other than our submarines.”

Phelan said the ships would also be equipped to carry nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missiles, a claim that immediately raised questions among arms control experts about whether such deployments could violate nonproliferation agreements the United States has signed with Russia.

Some US officials have argued that the Navy’s failure to build new large surface combatants in recent years has given an advantage to rival China.

Trump downplayed Beijing’s role in the decision, saying the expansion was “a counter to everybody.”

The announcement comes just a month after the Navy scrapped plans for a new small warship because of delays and cost overruns, opting instead for a modified version of a Coast Guard cutter. Other major naval programs, including the Ford-class aircraft carrier and Columbia-class submarines, have also faced schedule slips and rising costs.

The Navy has struggled to field some advanced weapons. It spent hundreds of millions of dollars over more than 15 years developing a ship-mounted railgun before abandoning the effort in 2021. Laser systems have seen more success but remain limited; one system designed to disable drone sensors is deployed on eight destroyers after eight years of development.

Trump and Phelan described the Trump-class ship as a spiritual successor to the battleships of the 20th century.

According to a newly launched “Golden Fleet” website, the proposed “guided missile battleship” would be roughly comparable in size to an Iowa-class ship but weigh about half as much and require far smaller crews of 650 to 850 sailors. Its primary armament would be missiles rather than large naval guns.