Free Republic

President Trump is preparing to announce plans to build new battleships for the first time in more than 80 years — and will name them after himself, according to a report.The new ships will be an upgrade to Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, the Wall Street Journal reported — with the current models costing more than $2 billion apiece to build. It was not immediately clear how many of the new ships will be built, what new capabilities they might have or whether legislation will be required to finance the initiative. The Journal also reported, citing a source, that...

President Donald Trump announced a new fleet of ships Monday, known as the "Golden Fleet," as he revealed he approved plans for two new "very large battleships." "As you know, we're desperately in need of ships. Our ships are some of them have gotten old and tired and obsolete," Trump said, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan. Trump said the new ships would be "100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built," in an address from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Renderings behind the president showed the...