(Palm Beach) Donald Trump announced Monday the launch of a new class of large warships that will bear his name, an extremely unusual move for a sitting president.
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These ships will be “the best in the world,” assured the American president during a press conference from his residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, specifying that two warships of the “Trump Class USS Defiant” would be built to begin with.
Images representing the future ship at sea and in action were displayed on easels around the desk.
PHOTO ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Donald Trump said this new class of “30,000 to 40,000 ton” ships was intended as a message “to everyone, this is not for China. We get along very well with China.”
The United States maintains, according to experts, a force of projection at sea significantly greater than that of China, which has undertaken to strengthen and modernize its own navy.
Beijing recently commissioned its third aircraft carrier, equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system, and a fourth is under construction, according to persistent rumors.
“The greatest”
The Republican leader estimated that the construction of the first two new ships would take “around 2 and a half years”, ensuring that this new class of buildings would then “quickly” number 10 ships, and, at the end of the project, 20 to 25 ships.
“Each of them will be the largest warship in the history of our country” and even “the world,” assured the 79-year-old billionaire, never shy of hyperbole.
Donald Trump invoked the memory of the great American battleships which distinguished themselves during the Second World War, for example the USS Missouri, to present this project of new steel giants, which he promised would be built in the United States.
He said these ships would be equipped with cannons and lasers, and could carry hypersonic and nuclear weapons.
The Republican also said he wanted to be personally involved in the design of the new boats, “because I am a person very focused on aesthetics”.
The American president, from his first mandate, was closely interested in the subject of naval construction, in particular to criticize the appearance of recent stealth vessels.
He took up this criticism at the end of September, speaking of “awful” boats.
In front of an assembly of the highest ranking officers of the American army, he launched into a tirade on the subject.
“I’m not a fan of some of the ships you make. I’m a very aesthetic person and I don’t like some of the ships you’re doing aesthetically,” he said at the time.
“Not a fan”
Donald Trump, who has no particular military or naval experience, has some strong ideas about defense technologies.
At the end of October, in a speech aboard an aircraft carrier stationed in Japan, he pleaded for the return of steam catapults to propel planes, instead of the more recent electromagnetic systems, arguing that maintenance was easier and the visual appearance more striking.
“I love seeing this beautiful steam pouring from the bridge. With electricity, that doesn’t exist,” he said.
Monday’s announcement comes shortly after the US Congress passed a defense law providing for an annual budget of more than $900 billion.
It also comes at a time when the Democratic opposition is already criticizing Donald Trump for a monarchical conception of the presidency, which sees him putting his name on public buildings, hanging portraits of himself in the White House and considering minting a commemorative coin with his image.
