Trump slammed for ‘stupid’ comments on designing ‘gorgeous’ new US warship | indy100

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Donald Trump has been putting his name on everything he can during his time as president – from the Kennedy Centre to the Institute of Peace – and now he's been floating the idea of a 'Trump-class battleship', too.

Over recent weeks, there’s been talk of a new Trump-class of battleships, called the “Golden Fleet”. Plans have already been put forward, with the head of the U.S. Navy believing the new ships should come equipped with lasers powerful enough to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles or hypersonic weapons.

The battleships are the first of their kind commissioned since the USS Missouri in 1944.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the ships is the emphasis that’s being placed on the aesthetics, rather than functionality or stealth.

Navy Secretary John Phelan previously said on X they planned to “make battle groups great again”, before adding that the Trump-class vessel “will be the best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans.”

Now, Trump has been criticised for speaking about helping to design the ships, seemingly placing emphasis on how they look.

Speaking in Texas during speech to military families, Trump said: “The new battleship that we have, which I’ve seen and helped design, I put a little more spirit in the hull, a little bit more, give me a little bit more hull, I want that ship to look gorgeous.

“Forget about stealth, they say, oh, it’s stealth. They design ugly equipment for stealth, well, we’re designing great looking equipment, also stealth.

“But I said, ‘Well what about bringing them back?’.

‘Sir, the new ships, the new battleships that we have – almost very soon under construction – will be,’ listen to this. 100 times more powerful than the ships that we got to see in the 1940s. Think of that. 100 times powerful. We need that. This way, nobody messes with us, right?”

The comments prompted a lot of reaction online.

Jeff Timer, a political strategist who previously worked with the Republican Party and is a senior advisor for the Lincoln Project, responded to the clip by writing: "On top of everything else, he's just soooo f***ing stupid."

Another wrote: "The only good thing in this madness is that these ships will never get built."

One more said: "Military ships aren't sports cars. They're built to not get blown up. Stealth isn't about being 'ugly' it's about not showing up clean on a radar.

"Why is he the damn president."

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