“I care a lot about aesthetics. I don’t like the look of some Navy ships. They say they’re stealth, but they’re not. You can’t excuse an ugly design by calling it stealth,” Trump remarked during a meeting with hundreds of U.S. generals in Virginia on September 30.
He did not name a specific vessel, though the U.S. Navy currently operates Zumwalt-class destroyers, which feature an angular design to reduce radar signature, and is studying other stealth concepts.
Trump also said he was considering reactivating decommissioned battleships. “Battleships had beautiful hulls made of six-inch-thick steel—not aluminum that melts when a missile comes at it. Nobody builds ships like that anymore,” he said, pointing to the museum ship USS Iowa in Los Angeles as an example of their enduring power.
“When I see those battleships alongside destroyers, nothing can stop them. People say it’s outdated technology, but I don’t think so when I look at those big guns. Shells are cheaper than missiles,” Trump added.
Mark Esper, his former defense secretary, confirmed that Trump had repeatedly complained about the Navy’s ship designs, often comparing them unfavorably with Russian and Italian warships, which he described as “sleeker, sharper, and more like real warships.”
Late in his first term, Trump criticized the Navy’s new frigate design, saying: “That ship looks terrible. Make it look better. It won’t cost more—if anything, it might even save money.”
Battleships, once the pinnacle of naval power, became obsolete with the rise of submarines, aircraft carriers, and long-range missiles. The U.S. stopped building them after World War II, converting some to carry Tomahawk missiles during the Cold War. Their era ended in the early 1990s, when the Navy retired its last battleship.