Trump unveils ‘Golden Fleet’ of Navy battleships, touts them as ‘more powerful than any' ever built

By Morgan Phillips

President Donald Trump announced a new fleet of ships Monday, known as the "Golden Fleet," as he revealed he approved plans for two new "very large battleships."

"As you know, we're desperately in need of ships. Our ships are some of them have gotten old and tired and obsolete," Trump said, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan.

Trump said the new ships would be "100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built," in an address from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

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Renderings behind the president showed the new "Trump class," including one named the USS Defiant. 

"We haven't built a battleship since 1994. These cutting-edge vessels will be some of the most lethal surface warfare ships … other than our submarines."

Trump said the Navy would immediately start procuring two ships, working up to 10 and eventually 20 ships to 25 ships in total, and would aim to have the first two within two and a half years. 

Trump described the ships as heavily armed platforms combining missiles and traditional naval guns, arguing that gun-based firepower could deliver combat effects at a fraction of the cost of missiles. Each ship would displace more than 30,000 tons to 40,000 tons and serve as a flagship of the U.S. fleet, he said.

The president said the battleships would be equipped with advanced weapons, including hypersonic missiles, electric rail guns and high-powered laser systems, as well as nuclear-capable sea-launched cruise missiles currently under development. Trump also said the ships would feature state-of-the-art defensive systems and carry what he described as "tremendous numbers of missiles."

Trump denied that the ships were meant to counter China. 

"It’s a counter to everybody. It’s not China, we get along great with China," Trump said. "I have a great relationship with President Xi and it’s not China. It's, just everybody you don't know who comes along, but, we just wanted peace through strength."

The announcement comes amid an ongoing debate within defense circles over the future of the U.S. fleet, with recent naval strategy emphasizing submarines, unmanned systems and more distributed surface forces.

Some defense planners have argued that large surface ships can be more visible and vulnerable targets in modern, missile-heavy conflicts, while others argue larger platforms can provide greater firepower, endurance and command-and-control capabilities.

He pointed to World War II-era shipbuilding as a model, noting that the U.S. once produced multiple ships per day, compared with what he described as today’s slower production pace.

Trump also tied the battleship announcement to a broader push to accelerate U.S. defense production. He said he plans to meet next week with major defense contractors to demand faster delivery timelines, increased capital investment in new factories, and limits on stock buybacks and executive compensation.

"We make the best equipment in the world, but they don’t make it fast enough," Trump said, arguing that companies should reinvest profits into production capacity rather than dividends and buybacks.

"I mean, I have sold more planes than any president by far times, probably 20. So every time I go someplace, I sell 100 planes," he said. "And I'm always having to say five years, six years, seven years helicopters, Apache helicopters, many years."

The announcement comes at a time when the Trump administration has elevated shipbuilding to a White House–level priority, establishing a dedicated office to oversee maritime industrial policy and signaling a broader push to expand U.S. naval capacity.

Defense leaders for years have warned that the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base has struggled to keep pace with demand, citing workforce shortages, fragile supplier networks, aging infrastructure, and persistent delays at major shipyards.

Navy leaders have long pointed to shifting requirements and design changes after construction has begun as another factor driving delays and cost growth in major shipbuilding programs.

In April, Trump signed an executive order declaring the erosion of America’s shipbuilding and maritime workforce a national security risk, directing a government-wide overhaul aimed at expanding domestic shipbuilding, stabilizing long-term funding, strengthening the workforce and countering China’s dominance in global ship production.

Inside the Navy, Phelan has echoed that urgency, warning that the service must "act like we’re at war," with shipbuilding and weapons production speeds. He has moved to overhaul the Navy’s acquisition culture, launching a new Rapid Capabilities Office designed to cut development timelines, enforce accountability and push new technology into the fleet faster than traditional Pentagon procurement allows.

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U.S. officials warn the shipbuilding crunch is colliding with an enormous capacity gap with China: the Office of Naval Intelligence has assessed that China has roughly 230 times the shipbuilding capacity of the United States, a disparity that has helped Beijing expand its fleet far faster than American yards can produce new hulls.

While U.S. officials say the Navy retains a technological edge in areas such as undersea warfare and carrier operations, they warn that China’s growing fleet size and industrial capacity are narrowing that advantage.

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The U.S. Navy currently operates about 294 warships, while China now fields the world’s largest navy by hull count, with more than 370 ships in service.

At the same time, several of the Navy’s marquee programs have struggled with delays and cost growth, including the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine, the Virginia-class attack submarine and the Constellation-class frigate, which has faced schedule pressure amid design and requirements changes.