Trump Is Naming a New Class of Navy Battleships After Himself

President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled plans for a new class of U.S. Navy battleships named after himself, reviving a type of warship the United States has not built in decades.

Flanked by top national security officials during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump said he has signed off on building two enormous warships as the first step in a much larger expansion he called the “Golden Fleet.” Construction will begin “immediately,” he said, with the initial vessels expected to take about two-and-a-half years to complete.

“Each one of these will be the largest battleship in the history of our country,” he said. “These have been under design consideration for a long time, and it started with me and my first term.”

Previous battleship classes were traditionally named after U.S. states, but this new generation would be called the “Trump class,” which marks the Navy’s first move to build battleships since the 1990s. Trump said the program would start with two ships but could ultimately grow to between 20 and 25 vessels.

Trump also suggested that he would help design the vessels himself, “because I’m a very aesthetic person.”

The announcement also fits a broader pattern of Trump branding major institutions with his name. Earlier this month, his administration renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington after himself. Last week, the largely Trump-appointed board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted to rename the complex the Trump-Kennedy Center, quickly adding new signage to reflect the change.

Trump repeatedly emphasized that the ships would be built domestically. “I want to be very clear that we’re building them here,” he said, framing the project as both a military and industrial push meant to revive U.S. shipyards and manufacturing jobs.

“We’re going to restore America as a major shipbuilding power,” Trump said.

He also described the vessels as deeply tied to emerging technology, saying artificial intelligence and automation would be central to their operation and construction.

“AI will be a big factor when it comes to these ships; they’ll be very AI-controlled,” Trump said. He added that production itself would rely heavily on automation: “We’re also going to have robots helping us. We’re going to have a lot of robots helping us.”

Navy Secretary John Phelan described the future ship, which will be called the USS Defiant, as “the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans,” adding that it would serve as a flagship capable of commanding fleets, drones and unmanned systems far from shore.

Trump also addressed questions about his antagonism toward Venezuela, referencing a “massive armada” assembled in the region, while suggesting that “land strikes” on the country would begin “soon”.

Trump added that if Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, “plays tough” in response to his saber-rattling, “it’ll be the last time.”