Donald Trump is increasing his threat of war by announcing new U.S. Navy warships, which will be bigger, faster and a hundred times more powerful as compared to any previous US-built warship.
Coming in the wake of attacks on Venezuelan boats and stealing an oil tanker, Trump is now pushing the envelope by announcing new Navy war ships, dubbed “Trump Class,” and also known as “Golden Fleet.”The news was announced Monday and his project will start with construction of two of these battleships, but to eventually be expanded to 20 to 25 new warships.
The BBC quotes John Phelan, the Navy secretary as saying, “Our adversaries will know, when the Trump-class USS Defiant appears on the horizon, American victory at sea is inevitable.”
Previous classes of warships were typically named after US States. However, Donald Trump, whose name is emblazoned on many golf clubs and hotels, which critics label a “narcissistic spree. Earlier in December, the Trump administration relabeled the US Institute of Peace in Washington to be named after him.
Meanwhile, in the past week, the Trump appointed board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, voted to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center. Moreover, a sign was added, despite this move requiring congressional authorization.
Donald Trump made the announcement from his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida. He accompanied the new with three posters on easels, displaying potential new images of a new “Trump class” battleship, the USS Defiant.
Speaking to reporters, Phelan explained that “the future Trump-class battleship, the USS Defiant will be the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans,” adding, “I want to thank the president for his vision to make this game-changing capability for the United States navy.”
“The Iowa was designed to go on the attack with the biggest guns and that’s exactly what will define the Trump-class battleships: offensive firepower from the biggest guns of our era. This ship isn’t just to swat the arrows. It is going to reach out and kill the archers.”
Phelan supports Trump’s plans and cited Victoria at Sea, a 1950s TV series about naval combat during World War II.
Now this new battleship will command everything from warships to drones and everything in between. We’re going to make battle groups great again.
In the past, the term battleship referred to a massive, heavily armored vessel armed with huge guns, designed to bombard other ships or targets ashore. These were most prominent in World War II, when the Iowa-class, the largest of the US battleships, was roughly 60,000 tons.
Someone please tell Trump that:
1) If the first ship is the USS Defiant, then it’s the “Defiant Class”, not “Trump Class”
2) Frigates are smaller than destroyers, much smaller than cruisers, and much much smaller than “battleships”. pic.twitter.com/TLiHnedMha
— BlueProvince (@BlueProvince) December 22, 2025
After World War II, modernized fleets diminished in favor of aircraft carriers and long-range missiles. However, the navy did modernize four of the Iowa-class battleships in the 1980s, while adding anti-ship more modern radars, missiles and cruise missiles. However, by the 1990s the ships were decommissioned.
On Monday, Donald Trump said, “We envision that these ships will be the first of a whole new class of battleships to be produced in the years to come,” adding, “I just want to be very clear that we’re building them here. We’re working with others but we’re building them here. We have great navy yards. We’ll be negotiating with some of the companies that are running those yards.”
Apparently, the new fleet of warships will be equipped with high-power lasers, hypersonic weapons and nuclear-armed, ocean-launched cruise missiles, that are currently under development. Trump added, “We’re going to restore America as a major shipbuilding power. We’re going to ensure the USA is the most powerful fleet anywhere in the world.”
