Trump has been trumpeting a Trump Class Battleship — to trump all others — as central to a plan for juicing up our navy, which has languished while China aggressively expands its own.
The Economist calls this part of a “garish proposal” for a “Golden Fleet.” Trump’s love for all things golden (and garish) is evidenced by the White House almost sinking under the weight of all the gold (or is it gilt?) ornamentation he’s larded into it, so he can feel like some potentate. And this new battleship would feed two other Trump cravings — his narcissist lust to have things named for himself — and bigness for bigness’ sake.
It would indeed be a behemoth three to four times larger than our current combat ships. And Trump says (though preposterously as usual) it will be “a hundred times more powerful than any battleship ever built.”
“Fighting the last war” is a cliche, but full of truth, especially in our own time when technology is so changing the face of warfare (as seen in Ukraine, with battlefields dominated by drones). Trump’s immense galleon would not be fighting the last war, but rather ones older still. Not since the 1940s have any ships of this general sort been commissioned.
And how exactly might these be used, in a modern war scenario? Hard to see, actually. The Economist does say the idea would “trade speed and range for armor and firepower.” Seems a lousy tradeoff, with hobbled speed enabling target vessels to elude the firepower. And the stupendous cost of $15 billion each (even without the customary overruns) would mean a further tradeoff, of having fewer vessels rather than many. Putting most of our eggs in this one basket.
It’s been ages since battleships played any real role in war. Not in the current Iran conflict. Conceivably it could happen if China attacks Taiwan; but that will likely come before any Trump Class ships can get built. Anyhow, concentrating our strength in a few monster vessels, rather than an agile dispersed fleet, would be a huge strategic gift to China.
A massive Trump battleship, like a musclebound giant, lumbering slow, would be a sitting duck for China to obliterate, whatever its armor. (As my wife remarked, “How ya gonna hide that thing?”) And losing just one would be a devastating blow, crippling our ability to combat China’s Taiwan assault.
Meantime though, would President TACO — caring nothing for democracy or a rules based world order — even deign to risk those ships to fight for Taiwan, against an authoritarian Chinese ruler he enviously admires?
So why build them? Not vessels of war but of ego.