Trump unveils warship named after himself in shipbuilding push

President Donald Trump announced the US Navy will build a new “Trump-class” warship as part of the White House push to modernize the service’s surface fleet and restore domestic shipbuilding.

A poster displayed at the event at Trump’s gilded Mar-a-Lago estate featured an artist’s rendering of a sleek-looking warship dubbed the USS Defiant, cutting through choppy waters with a laser beam shooting from its deck and smoke billowing from a target in the background. 

Next to the ship was a picture of Trump raising his fist in the air in a near copy of the defiant pose he struck minutes after surviving an assassination attempt in 2024. Another poster shows a rendering of the vessel sailing by the Statue of Liberty

“We’re desperately in need of ships,” Trump said. “Some of them have gotten old and tired and obsolete, and we’re going to go the exact opposite direction.”

The Navy is also pursuing a new frigate based off the Legend-class cutter as it looks to shore up a surface combatant fleet that is one-third the size the service needs, the service announced Dec. 19. The ship, dubbed the FF(X), will be built by Newport News, Virginia-based HII, whose Legend-class cutter will serve as the basis for the new vessel.

The new ships are part of Trump’s “Golden Fleet” bid to revive US shipbuilding and address shortfalls in smaller ships exposed by recent military operations around the world. Overhauling shipping has been one of the top de...