Trump has ordered battleships named after him – but the weapons he’s demanding don’t even exist yet
WASHINGTON, DC – As the year clatters towards its end, Donald Trump cannot stop naming things after himself. But even by the American leader’s already shameless standards, his decision to attach his name to an entirely new class of battleships for the US Navy opens up a whole new range of questions about his psychological make-up.
It also forces military planners to address the fact that, regardless of their might and weaponry, the President doesn’t like the way America’s existing warships look.
Trump’s obsession with branding and image is well-established. In his lawsuit against the BBC, his attorneys proclaim “the value of President Trump’s personal brand is reasonably estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars”. The Trump family name is emblazoned atop every building he owns, including Trump Tower in Manhattan and also the golf club in Florida, where he will host world leaders for next year’s G20 Summit.
He spent a good part of 2025 attaching gold leaf and golden moulding to virtually every surface in the White House. He determined that signage in the presidential residence was insufficient, and installed golden placards informing visitors that they were entering “The West Wing”. Had the complex still boasted an East Wing at the time, the move might have sought to avoid understandable visitor confusion, but by then Trump’s bulldozers were already hard at work.
So now it falls to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to commission “Trump Class” battleships that the President announced on Monday will “maintain American military supremacy, revive the American shipbuilding industry, and inspire fear in America’s enemies all over the world”. Renderings of a future vessel named the USS Defiant were placed on easels at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort where the announcement was made. The President insisted the new fleet will be “100 times more powerful” than the Iowa-class battleships that were deployed during the Second World War. “Each one of these will be the largest battleship in the history of our country, the largest battleship in the history of the world,” he pledged.
Size, of course, is not everything, and immediate questions are being raised about the weaponry the President has selected for his naval fleet. Neither the hypersonic weapons, nor the electric rail guns that he wants to strike fear into the hearts of America’s foes, actually exist. Stars and Stripes, the daily military newspaper, drily noted that both remain “under development”. The New York Times told its readers that the US Navy had already “spent billions trying and failing to develop prototypes that it can field”. The rail guns, which use electromagnetic rails to fire missiles instead of fuel and on-board motors, were deemed “impractical” after a decade of testing.
But Trump believes the mere force of his personality can kick-start the process of getting the weaponry deployed. He intends personally to oversee the project, and announced he will meet with defence contractors in Florida next week and urge the acceleration of the new fleet’s construction, aiming for 20 vessels to be commissioned in total. The “Trump Class” battleships will form the centrepiece of the “Golden Fleet” he has promised the navy, replacing vessels the President dismisses as “old and tired and obsolete”.
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Usually, American presidents wait years before Congress instructs the armed forces to honour them by attaching their name to a warship or other piece of military hardware. It was almost 30 years after Gerald Ford’s presidency that his name was given to an aircraft carrier currently patrolling the waters off Venezuela. And almost ten years after the presidency of George H. W. Bush – a military hero who flew bomber missions in the Pacific during the Second World War that almost cost him his life – that an aircraft carrier was named after him.
But Trump is an impatient man and has no truck with Congressional process. The images of his battleships would not have looked out of place in an archival edition of Boy’s Own, and he is intent on developing new toys for the Pentagon that will forever be associated with his all-important personal brand.
Navy secretary John Phelan, who knows which side his bread is buttered, told reporters the first ships will be brought into active service within 2 ½ years – before Trump’s term of office is due to end. “This ship isn’t just going to swat the arrows. It’s going to reach out and kill the archers,” he promised, as the Commander in Chief watched and beamed.
