President Trump has initiated the construction of a "Golden Fleet" consisting of Trump-Class battleships , a project costing billions of dollars. Naval experts have criticized the initiative as an extravagant expenditure that lacks genuine military necessity.
The $150 billion price tag for ten Golden Fleet ships
The financial scale of the Trump-Class project is immense, with the first vessel expected to cost $17.5 billion and the subsequent two priced at $14.5 billion each. According to the report, this brings the initial three-ship total to $36.5 billion. During a December 22 media event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, President Trump announced plans to build ten of these ships, a move that would increase the total expenditure to approximately $150 billion.
This massive investment comes at a time when naval strategists are debating the allocation of defense funds. Critics argue that the high cost of the Trump-Class battleships drains essential funding away from smaller, more agile, and more effective alternatives that the U.S. Navy currently requires for modern warfare.
How the 35,000-ton Trump-class compares to the USS Iowa
While designed to evoke the grandeur of the past, the Trump-Class ships differ significantly from their predecessors. The Trump-class battleships will displace 35,000 tons, making them considerably lighter than the 60 ,000-ton USS Iowa, which currently serves as a floating museum in San Pedro, California. Despite the weight difference, the Trump-class will reach 880 feet in length, nearly matching the 887-foot span of the USS Iowa.
Personnel requirements have also been scaled down for the new fleet. The Trump-class is designed for a crew of around 800 sailors, a sharp decrease from the more than 1,800 crew members required to operate an Iowa-class battleship during World War II. This reduction in manpower reflects a shift in naval operations, though the ships' massive size remains a primary design feature.
Dr. Emma Salisbury's warning on Ticonderoga-class efficiency
The strategic utility of the Golden Fleet is being questioned by specialists in naval architecture. Dr. Emma Salisbury, a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s National Security Program, told the Daily Beast that the Trump-class ships offer negligible gains in missile firepower despite their enormous displacement. As reported, Dr. Salisbury noted that these vessels have only marginally more missile launch capacity than a U.S. Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, which is only one-third the size of the Trump-class.
This disparity suggests that the Trump-class may be an "easily targeted behemoth" in a modern combat environment. The focus on a "gorgeous" hull and a rejection of stealth design—which President Trump described as "ugly equipment"—could make these ships vulnerable to modern missile systems that rendered the original battleship era obsolete by 1992, when the USS Missouri was retired.
A 1952 WWII docuseries and the drive for "gorgeous" hulls
The inspiration for the Golden Fleet appears to be rooted in nostalgia rather than current geopolitical threats. President Trump has cited a 26-episode black-and-white docuseries about naval warfare against Nazi Germany and Japan,which first aired in 1952 when he was eight years old, as a primary influence. He has expressed a specific admiration for the "act of beauty" found in ships with seven-inch steel hulls that could cut through waves like a "hot knife through butter."
This fascination echoes a broader historical trend where naval power was once measured by the size of the gun and the thickness of the armor. However, the report highlights that aircraft carriers supplanted battleships as the dominant force at sea decades ago. by prioritizing the visual spirit of the hull over stealth and agility, the Trump-class project attempts to revive a naval philosophy that the U.S. Navy had largely abandoned by the late 20th century.
The status of railguns and high-energy laser integration
Despite the criticisms , the Trump-class is intended to be a multi-role platform, serving as a command and communications center and a launch pad for helicopters and vertical take-off aircraft. The design includes plans for advanced weaponry, specifically high-energy lasers and railguns that use magnetic forces instead of gunpowder to propel projectiles at extreme speeds.
However, it remains unclear when or if these systems will be fully operational, as they are currently described as being in "prolonged development." The attempt to combine a command center, a VTOL airfield, and experimental weaponry into a single hull raises the risk that the Trump-class will be a "jack of all trades, master of none," failing to excel in any single military capacity.
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