- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
The move comes amid outcry from Democrats after the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts affixed Trump’s name to its sign in Washington.
Donald Trump’s name is being attached to a new class of U.S. battleships that will have nuclear capabilities.
Making the announcement at an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Navy Secretary John Phelan referred to the warships as “Trump-class battleships" and said a forthcoming vessel dubbed the USS Defiant will be “the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans.”
Trump’s eponymous battleships will be armed with guns and missiles, as well as hypersonic weapons, electronic rail guns and high-powered lasers.
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It was probably easier for the DoW to pretend that this cruiser is a battleship than to make Trump understand that the battleships he keeps demanding are useless in a modern war.
He only knows the word from seeing the board game that one time him and Epstein snorted coke off it
That battleship appears to have no large guns, a stealthy hull, a helicopter platform, and I doubt armor, given the superstructure.
This kind of comes off to me like some of Japan’s “destroyers”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumo-class_destroyer
I’m wondering if what happened here is that the Navy wanted a cruiser and Trump wanted more honors.
EDIT: I’d also add that tradition is almost always to name the class after the lead ship, but the “Trump class”, assuming the artist rendition there is of the lead ship, appears to be of a USS Defiant, not the USS Donald J. Trump. Not that I’m complaining — I’ve long prefered the old British Navy style use of names like HMS Invincible or HMS Glorious or whatnot stuff. The USS Enterprise for the US, etc.
EDIT2: Apparently, based on other articles, the hull classification symbol is “BBG”, which has never been used, but would theoretically refer to a guided missile battleship, so it could have a bunch of VLS cells for armament. I’m a little hazy on what would distinguish it from a guided missile cruiser (CG), though.
Navy wanted a cruiser
That might be a good guess, perhaps two or three nuclear powered cruisers, fitted out for drone and anti drone work. Trumps gone and hijacked that.
I understand the Burkes were supposed to pick up the role the Ticonderoga class played, weren’t they?
Calling it the Defiant hurts even more.
Wishing so goddamn hard for Ben Sisko’s Muthafuckin’ Pimp Hand to come take a swing at the tangerine toddler.
It’s not right if the Defiant is captained by someone who isn’t a mall manager and space Jesus
it is in the hands of the prophets now, my child
See, this is more of my beef with the system - battleships have been named after states almost exclusively. If he wants a ship named for himself it should be a CVN.
They could be talking about an arsenal ship? Basically a battleship size missile carrier with loads of VLS cells
I think the US navy did study the concept, but found that it was more survivable to spread those cells across more ships than to concentrate them in larger hulls
Next Dem should reclassify “Trump Ship” to mean the shittiest possible boat. Leave it as a classification, just redefine it
Guy is so vain. If it isn’t a re-badge of a project. Lay a keel or two and they’ll rot in the yard before completion.
If this was a just world, it would be the name of the leaky prison hulk that he’s chained up inside.
Those ships that you need to get rid of but it’s too expensive to get rid of them so you just have them rotting away somewhere.
oh hey i live near there. the mothball fleet is pretty cool actually.
The world’s first orange battleship that fucks kids
Surprised this hasn’t been posted yet in this thread.
This is the rare case where I don’t actually disagree. Then again, I think he’d do this narcissistic nonsense even if people didn’t care about Epstein. Creating petty distractions is just a habit for him, and it has always served him well.
Does he know trump means fart?
Are they going to deploy those in Gulf of Mexico?
Why put 50 billion into one weapons platform when it can be sunk by a cheap drone?
I don’t get it.
Narcissism and cronyism. What other reasons does trump ever do things for?
Didn’t we stop using battleships once stuff like guided missiles started being common?
We’ve seen in Ukraine how much destruction cheap drones can do when used intelligently.
he’s only calling them battleships because as a fascist he has a simplified understanding of history and a fetishization of the past. these are surface to surface missile launch platforms with helicopter landing pads
I’m no expert, but given the distributed nature of the stuff I’m seeing with Ukraine against Russia, I would think a “not all eggs in the same basket” approach would be the best idea
Yeh, even carriers are considered potentially outdated by some military planners should the US ever face an opponent that can actually fight back.
The chomo fleet?
The new vessels, which the president calls battleships, will be the latest in what the White House envisions as a Golden Fleet.
Dunno. They’re quite easy to spot, aren’t they?
The colour seems right, but the proportions are easy off.
you get 100 of them in formation and light the enemy on fire with the sun’s rays
Mysterious Cities of Gold intensifies…
I read that in the announcer’s voice.
That’s nice grandpa, but it’s time for your nap before you rage tweet all night.
“Bubba Buckets”
I’m calling it: Trump is one Western movie watch away from ordering the military to bring back cavalry.
moped cavalry?
We still have the cavalry, stetsons and all. Unless you mean like actual horse cavalry. The U.S. Army still maintains horses and stables. But the horses are mostly just for ceremonial/parade purposes.
It’s a very small unit, though, from memory.
Also, occasionally US special forces have used horses in unusual, rugged terrain. There was some unit in Afghanistan that had some technical claim to being the most-recent cavalry charge in history.
searches
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Mazar-i-Sharif
Photo showing U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Air Force Combat Controllers in “the first American cavalry charge of the 21st century”[19] with General Dostum and his forces (Taken October 2001)
Ceremonial horse cavalry is small, but 1st Cavalry Division still exists. Its more light armor and mechanized infantry instead of horse cavalry though.
Do they actually have horses?
searches
Apparently yes, though it’s not huge either and it sounds like they’re being dissolved too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Cavalry_Division_Horse_Cavalry_Detachment
The 40-soldier unit is equipped with 33 dark bay horses with minimal white markings which are outfitted with Model 1885 McClellan riding saddles that are hand-made by cavalry troopers in an on-site leather shop maintained at the unit’s stables.
On 2 July 2025 the Army announced that the Military Working Equid program that includes the 1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment will cease operations and associated assets (MWEs) will be transferred, adopted, or donated within one year.
Oh, I hadn’t heard they were being dissolved.
those poor horses
I feel a little bad about laughing at that
Special forces it makes sense, but regular assault troops it’s just desperate.
https://sopuli.xyz/post/38499583
Russia Continues Using Cavalry in Failed Assault, OSINT-Shared Video Reveals
Footage shared by the OSINT community shows Russian forces attempting to storm a Ukrainian position using a horse for transport, an assault that was ultimately halted by a Ukrainian drone strike, according to video published by Exilenova+ on December 22.
While unusual at first glance, the incident aligns with earlier reports indicating that Russian frontline units have increasingly relied on animals as substitutes for destroyed or unavailable military vehicles.
The Napoleonic era is coming back, baby.
“halted”
Eeeeexcelllleeent
No no no, you don’t understand. This one is going to be more than a hundred times more powerful because it’s going to be bigger and faster!
Haven’t drones made these obsolete? A swarm of Chinese drones would cripple one in a day.
That’s a good point, but it seems so obvious. I would we have a giant EMP or laser pointer thing that could wipe them out. Idk, just seems like they should have thought of that
Fair point. I know Ukraine had been using them successfully. Maybe fiber optic drones? I feel like this is the new arms race.
