President Donald Trump announced that he would roll out a whole new fleet of Navy ships, which he intends to call the “Golden Fleet.” However, military experts are warning it is more of a “vanity project” than a military strategy.
Writing for The Atlantic, former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols said that Trump has pivoted from rebuilding a fierce military to creating something he can simply name after himself.
A “new class of ship named after one Donald J. Trump would be added to the ‘Golden Fleet,’ his name for a renewed U.S. Navy,” Nichols explained. “You might wonder about the propriety of a sitting president naming naval vessels, among other things, after himself. Pardon the expression, but that ship has sailed.”
Much like the Kennedy Center, it's already a done deal.
Warships aren't generally known for being pretty, Nichols pointed out. The designs Trump showed off don't appear to have gold figureheads on the bow.
"He also reiterated that he wanted U.S. ships to be more attractive, noting that he would be involved in the design of the new vessels because 'I am a very aesthetic person," wrote Nichols.
Nichols noted that it has become clear to him that none of his staff appeared to explain that a nicer ship doesn't mean it would be worth more.
Nichols also said that the Trump message made it clear that he "has no idea what battleships are. Second, the United States is going to invest in a new class of naval vessel. Third, America is going to reverse more than 30 years of wise policy by putting nuclear weapons back on U.S. Navy surface vessels."
The "battleships" appear to be supersized versions of the original Arleigh Burke—class destroyer, the first ship. Trump's will be about three times that size.
"Destroyers and frigates are less rugged, and perform missions that require more speed and agility than battleships can muster," Nichols explained. "But none of that matters: The goal, apparently, was to give a childlike president a new toy, named after himself, in exchange for gobs of money that the Navy will figure out how to spend later."
At one point Trump was asked about his endgame in the conflict with Venezuela.
"For example, he spooled off his usual lines about people being sent into the United States from prisons and mental hospitals, as if someone had hit the wrong button and played the wrong recording," Nichols mocked.
Trump also recommitted himself to taking over Greenland. Nichols said that Trump's new gold fleet with his own name on them is more likely to happen than a Greenland takeover.