Trump announces new battleship class named after himself as military pressure around Venezuela ramps up

Donald Trump announced plans on Monday for the U.S. Navy to construct a new class of warships that will be some of the largest vessels of its type the service has fielded.

The battleships, which are part of an effort to develop a new “Golden Fleet,” will be “100 times more powerful than any battleships ever built,” declared Trump.

Details first learned by The Wall Street Journal indicate the ships will replace the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and cost around $5bn each.

The ships will be 30,000-40,000 tons, according to the president, and will carry the capacity for hosting futuristic technology like directed energy lasers and railguns, a U.S. official claimed to the Journal. The newspaper reported that the new fleet, which will also include new frigates announced by the service last week, was the product of the work of a joint Navy-White House team to counter China’s influence.

Trump, on Monday, denied that it was the fleet’s specific aim, claiming instead that it would counter “everybody” and talking up his administration’s relationship with Beijing.

The president spoke from Palm Beach, Florida, where he is staying for the Christmas holiday into the new year. Signs next to the president depicted artistic renderings of the first ship of the new line, the “Trump-class USS Defiant.”

“As commander-in-chief, it is my great honor to announce that I have approved a plan for the Navy to begin the construction of two brand new, very large, largest we’ve ever built, battleships,” the president announced.

“There’s never been anything like these ships,” Trump said. “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?’”

“We used to build a ship a day, during World War 2. And now we don’t really do ships anymore,” the president complained on Monday before praising his first administration on the issue of constructing and revolutionizing the Navy’s submarines. During his first term, U.S. naval shipbuilding missed targets set by the Obama administration.

He was flanked by top Cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

The Navy secretary, John Phelan, claimed that the Trump administration would “make battleships great again” and would build the “best-looking” ships on the planet.

Monday’s announcement follows a months-long escalating military campaign against small boats in the Caribbean, which U.S. officials claim are ferrying drugs bound for American shores. The Trump administration has offered little outside of classified briefings to Congress as the death toll from the operations passes100 people slain in what was once treated by the U.S. government as a law enforcement matter requiring prosecution rather than the application of lethal military force.

A major naval buildup continues off Venezuela’s shores and U.S. forces have begun interdicting and seizing oil tankers sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for alleged involvement with illegal organizations. The president said Monday that the U.S. would “keep” oil and vessels seized as part of the sanctions enforcement operations, but didn’t say for certain whether it would be sold or added to the U.S. Strategic Reserve.

“Maybe we’ll sell it, maybe we’ll keep it, maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves. We’re keeping it. We’re keeping the ships also,” the president said.

The U.S. government continues to insist that Venezuela’s government, run by Nicolas Maduro, is controlled by a criminal cartel led by Maduro himself. The Maduro government remained in power after the 2024 elections, many U.S. and international election monitors said were fraudulent.

On Monday, Trump repeated his insistence that the U.S. will begin ground operations targeting Venezuelan drug smuggling groups, while also claiming to reporters that those operations would be expanded anywhere where drugs were supposedly “pouring in” to the United States.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered another defense of the strikes against small boats, which international experts say constitute extrajudicial killings of alleged criminals and may have even killed innocents in the mix: “There are no fishing poles, no fishermen and no fishing boats, just drug dealers and narco terrorists. And with every strike, we’re saving American lives. No other President is willing to do real deterrence, that’s exactly what’s happening.”

Trump did not go as far as saying that Maduro’s removal from power was his aim; however, in a blow to members of his party, such as Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, who are ardent supporters of U.S.-led regime change in the South American country.

“He can do whatever he wants. It’s alright. If he plays tough, it’ll be the last time, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough, though,” said Trump of Maduro.