Trump announces plans for new Navy 'battleship' as part of a 'Golden
Fleet'
[December 23, 2025]
By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and AAMER MADHANI
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has announced a bold plan for
the Navy to build a new, large warship that he is calling a “battleship”
as part of a larger vision to create a "Golden Fleet."
“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful
than any battleship ever built,” Trump claimed during the announcement
at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
According to Trump, the ship, the first of which will be named the USS
Defiant, will be longer and larger than the World War II-era Iowa-class
battleships and will be armed with hypersonic missiles, nuclear cruise
missiles, rail guns, and high-powered lasers — all technologies that are
in various stages of development by the Navy.
The announcement comes just a month after the Navy scrapped its plans to
build a new, small warship, citing growing delays and cost overruns,
deciding instead to go with a modified version of a Coast Guard cutter
that was being produced until recently. The sea service has also failed
to build its other newly designed ships, like the new Ford-class
aircraft carrier and Columbia-class submarines, on time and on budget.
Meanwhile, the Navy has struggled to field some of the technologies
Trump says will be aboard the new ship.
The Navy spent hundreds of millions of dollars and more than 15 years
trying to field a railgun aboard a ship before finally abandoning the
effort in 2021.
Laser technology has seen more success in making its way onto Navy ships
in recent years, but its employment is still limited. One system that is
designed to blind or disable drone sensors is now aboard eight
destroyers after spending eight years in development.
Developing nuclear cruise missile capabilities or deploying them on
ships may also violate non-proliferation treaties that the U.S. has
signed with Russia.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing
plans, told The Associated Press that design efforts are now underway
for the new ship and construction is planned to begin in the early
2030s.
Both Trump and Navy Secretary John Phelan spoke about the new
Trump-class warship as a spiritual successor to the battleships of the
20th century, but historically that term has referred to a very specific
type of ship — a large, heavily armored vessel armed with massive guns
designed to bombard other ships or targets ashore.
This type of ship was at the height of prominence during World War II,
and the largest of the U.S. battleships, the Iowa-class, were roughly
60,000 tons. But after World War II, the battleship's role in modern
fleets diminished rapidly in favor of aircraft carriers and long-range
missiles. The U.S. Navy did modernize four Iowa-class battleships in the
1980s by adding cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles, along with
modern radars, but by the 1990s all four were decommissioned.
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President Donald Trump departs after speaking at his Mar-a-Lago
club, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex
Brandon)
According to a newly created website for the “Golden Fleet,” this
new “guided missile battleship” is set to be roughly the same size
as Iowa-class battleships but only weigh about half as much, around
35,000 tons, and have far smaller crews — between 650 and 850
sailors.
Its primary weapons will also be missiles, not large naval guns.
Trump has long held strong opinions on specific aspects of the
Navy’s fleet, sometimes with a view toward keeping older technology
instead of modernizing.
During his first term, he unsuccessfully called for the return to
steam-powered catapults to launch jets from the Navy’s newest
aircraft carriers instead of the more modern electromagnetic system.
He has also complained to Phelan about the look of the Navy’s
destroyers and decried Navy ships being covered in rust.
Phelan told senators at his confirmation hearing that Trump "has
texted me numerous times very late at night, sometimes after one
(o’clock) in the morning” about “rusty ships or ships in a yard,
asking me what am I doing about it.”
On a visit to a shipyard that was working on the now-canceled
Constellation-class frigate in 2020, Trump said he personally
changed the design of the ship.
“I looked at it, I said, ‘That’s a terrible-looking ship, let’s make
it beautiful,’” Trump said at the time.
He said Monday he will have a direct role in designing this new
warship as well.
“The U.S. Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me,
because I’m a very aesthetic person,” Trump said.
Phelan said the new USS Defiant “will inspire awe and reverence for
the American flag whenever it pulls into a foreign port."
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