Trump set to announce new battleship that he’s considered calling ‘Trump class’

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump is set to announce a new type of battleship Monday that he has considered calling the “Trump class,” a person familiar with the matter said, as he works to update a US Naval fleet he’s said before is unattractive and rusty.

The president is expected to make the announcement Monday afternoon in Florida with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also national security adviser. Trump has discussed calling the new ships “Trump-class” battleships, though it was not immediately clear if he would formally announce that Monday. They will form part of the new “Golden Fleet” that the president has ordered up for the Navy, meant to better counter China and other adversaries and to more closely adhere to Trump’s aesthetic standards.

“I’m not a fan of some of the ships you do. I’m a very aesthetic person and I don’t like some of the ships you’re doing aesthetically,” Trump told an assemblage of military brass gathered at Quantico earlier this year.

“They say, ‘Oh, it’s stealth.’ I say that’s not stealth. An ugly ship is not necessary in order to say you’re stealth,” he said.

The Navy proposed the name “Golden Fleet,” which nods to Trump’s favorite decorative feature and has similarly been used for his “Golden Dome” missile protection system.

Naming a class of ships after Trump could mean his name will also be affixed to an actual vessel – though such a move would likely be years away.

Each class of ships represents a new design and is traditionally named after the first ship of that design produced. If Trump designated the class with his own name and the US Navy followed that convention, it would mean the first ship built with the design announced by Trump on Monday would be the USS Trump.

The Navy announced Friday it would commission a new class of frigates, built in the United States, as part of the new fleet. Frigates are designed to protect sea lanes and protect larger vessels.

The announcement comes amid a massive US naval buildup in the Caribbean Sea as Trump applies pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, including attempts to cut off his oil revenues.

The Navy has been involved in a string of interdictions of oil tankers in the Caribbean, though the US Coast Guard has taken the lead in the operations. The US has intercepted two tankers off the coast of Venezuela this month, and on Sunday, the Coast Guard was in “active pursuit” of the massive tanker Bella 1 after it refused to submit to US seizure efforts.

The status of the pursuit was unclear on Monday morning, but American officials said the fact that the tanker — which was empty and headed to Venezuela to load up on oil — turned around and is now sailing away from the country was itself a success.

This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.

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