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Trump and Hegseth's Major Announcement Did Not Disappoint

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  December 22, 2025 5:30 PM

President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth unveiled a significant development regarding our armed forces. The US Navy is going to christen a new “golden fleet” that will likely trigger liberals. Why? Well, because the latest line of frigates will be part of the new Trump-class. The new project is aimed at counteracting the rising threat posed by China in the Pacific (via WSJ):

President Trump will announce Monday that the Navy is to build a new “Trump-class” battleship, which will become the centerpiece of the president’s vision for a new “Golden Fleet,” according to a U.S. official. 

The news follows the Navy’s announcement last week that it will commission a new class of frigates. Trump has for years advocated for revamping America’s fleet of warships, which he has said are “terrible-looking” and covered in rust. In his first term, he called for a return to steam-powered catapults to launch jets from aircraft carriers, in a move that wasn’t successful, and complained about the aesthetics of the Navy’s destroyers. He has been personally involved in crafting plans for the Golden Fleet, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. The first ship in the class will be the USS Defiant, the official said. 

The new battleship will be an upgrade to the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which are the workhorse of the current fleet and which Trump has compared unfavorably to rival navies, according to the U.S. official and another person familiar with the discussions. The “battleship” name harks back to the ships with large main guns used until the end of the Cold War, but the new ships will feature a next-generation design. 

[…] 

A White House and Navy team earlier this year began planning for a new fleet that will be better suited to counter China, manage the Western Hemisphere and deal with other threats, the Journal earlier reported. The Navy proposed the name “Golden Fleet,” following other similarly branded Trump-era initiatives such as the Golden Dome missile defense system he ordered the military to build soon after returning to office.  

Golden Fleet will comprise a number of large warships outfitted with more powerful long-range missiles, even potentially hypersonic missiles, along with a larger number of a new small ship, the frigate. The new frigate will be based on the Coast Guard’s Legend-class National Security Cutter, which Ingalls builds in Pascagoula, Miss., and will replace the Constellation-class frigate that the Navy canceled last month after years of delays. 

The Navy has 287 ships in its inventory, mostly destroyers, cruisers, aircraft carriers, amphibious ships and submarines. 

The president announced today at Mar-a-Lago that the “golden fleet” has a target of 10 ships, with two in the production phase initially. Trump hopes to have 20-25 vessels built in total.