BATTLESHIP
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That’s why this year we’re investing also $1 trillion in our armed forces, most we’ve ever spent, and next year it’s being raised.Oh yeah...
In fact, we’re going to be building a number of battleships. You ever hear of battleship, you know, World War II, you saw those big ships, the Iowa, the Alabama, the Missouri, they’re going there, sailing through that water like it’s noth–. Those big waves are crashing under the front.
The hulls are made of seven inches of steel, not aluminum. (LAUGHS) Aluminum’s fine by the way, don’t want to hurt the industry, we’re doing very well.
But I’ll take steel.
And it’s going through those waves like it’s a hot knife through butter, right? And it was incredible, it was a great thing, it’s was a act of beauty.
When you looked at that scenes, Victory at Sea, I don’t know, has anyone ever seen Victory at Sea? Probably the ones that have would have joined the armed forces when you have. But Victory at Sea.
And you looked at those battleships. So now we’re building ten of them, initial order, ten.
And I said, “What about reinstating the old ships?”.
We have some of them in dry dock. Some of them are museums right now. Like the Iowa is in– Rancho Palos Verdes in California. You have couple of them and they’re still very powerful looking to me.
So I said “What about bringing them back?”.
They said, “Sir, would be no good.”.
Why do you say that? The new battleship that we have, which I’ve seen and helped design, I put a little more spirit in the hull, a little bit more, give me a little bit more hull, I want that ship to look gorgeous, you know.
Forget about stealth, they say, oh, it’s stealth. They design ugly equipment for stealth, well, we’re designing great looking equipment, also stealth.
But I said, “Well what about bringing them back?”.
“Sir, the new ships, the new battleships that we have– almost very soon under construction– will be,” listen to this. 100 times more powerful than the ships that we got to see in the 1940s.
Think of that. 100 times powerful. We need that. This way, nobody messes with us, right?
- Navy Secretary John Phelan said Trump plans to begin with two ships - not 10
- almost very soon under construction -The first ship of the class, the USS Defiant (BBG-1), is targeted for a construction start in the early 2030s.
