Trump’s Vision for a “Golden Fleet” Includes New Battleship
The White House is on the brink of unveiling a significant naval expansion initiative, introducing a new class of warship under President Donald Trump’s “Golden Fleet” vision. This announcement, expected on Monday, will outline plans for a large “surface combatant class” of ships accompanied by up to 50 auxiliary vessels, according to insiders.
Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, now a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, highlighted the plan’s details. The revelation comes shortly after the Navy abandoned its previous plans for a new, smaller warship due to logistical challenges, opting instead for an enhanced version of a Coast Guard cutter that was previously in production.
The announcement at Mar-a-Lago, during Trump’s Florida vacation, will feature Trump alongside key figures such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Navy Secretary John Phelan. This event is part of broader U.S. operations in the Caribbean, aimed at curbing drug trafficking and pressuring Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Further details are available in the announcement.
While Montgomery supports the expansion of support ships, he expressed skepticism regarding the new battleship-style vessel. Historically, battleships were formidable, armored ships with extensive artillery, peaking during World War II. The U.S. Navy’s Iowa-class battleships, weighing around 60,000 tons, epitomized this era. Post-war, the prominence of battleships waned, supplanted by aircraft carriers and long-range missiles. Although modernized in the 1980s, the Iowa-class ships were decommissioned by the 1990s.
President Trump has occasionally advocated for maintaining older naval technologies, challenging modernization trends. During his initial term, he unsuccessfully proposed reverting to steam-powered catapults for aircraft carriers, eschewing the advanced electromagnetic systems. His dissatisfaction extended to the aesthetics of Navy destroyers, emphasizing rust issues to Navy Secretary Phelan. Phelan recounted late-night communications from Trump on such matters, saying, “He has texted me numerous times very late at night, sometimes after one (o’clock) in the morning about ‘rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me what am I doing about it.’”
Trump’s involvement in naval design was evident during a 2020 shipyard visit, where he claimed to have altered the Constellation-class frigate’s design. “I looked at it, I said, ‘That’s a terrible-looking ship, let’s make it beautiful,’” Trump stated at the time.
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