The U.S. Navy Trump-class battleship program could run $700,000,000,000 in total life-cycle costs through the 2050s. The U.S. Navy plans to build 15 Trump-class battleships. Critics warn the Trump-class could become “bomb magnets” for Chinese stealth fighters and hypersonic anti-ship missiles.
The Trump-Class Battleship Mistake?
North Carolina Battleship. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Montana-Class Battleship. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
USS Missouri Iowa-Class Battleship. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The Trump-class battleship will be a modern marvel if ever built. This missile barge will be plenty powerful and can send U.S. adversaries a message that their precious ships may become endangered species. The Trump-class could also bring massive firepower to bear on land targets through a diverse range of weapon systems.
Two Major Issues That Threaten the Trump-class
There are two problems associated with the first of the class – the USS Defiant. First, the cost is out of this world. The entire program could run $700 billion. One of the main reasons for this eye-watering price tag is that the U.S. Navy envisions them as nuclear-powered.
These power plants will be on 15 ships, with a total life-cycle cost of $46.6 billion per vessel through the 2050s.
Overcome By Events
Second, they could be obsolete by the time they are built. To be sure, there are some whizbang features.
The Trump-class is designed to carry lasers to better protect aircraft carriers and strike groups.
There is also a 32 Megajoule Railgun. But the USS Defiant and its sister ships could become “bomb magnets.”
The missile barges could be outflanked by an overwhelming flight of stealth fighters and bombers. Precise anti-ship missiles could make it through the protective screen and sink a Trump-class battleship. Other American ships and submarines can conduct the land-attack role, and ship-on-ship warfare is mostly a thing of the past.
$18 Billion Requested for the Next Two Years
Nevertheless, the Navy is forging ahead. The maritime branch requested $1 billion in FY2027 for research and development for the Trump-class and nearly $17 billion in FY2028.
Trump-Class Battleship. Image Credit: White House.
Trump-Class Battleship. Image Credit: White House.
Will the Trump-class Be Another F-35 Money Pit?
Is the U.S. military going to repeat the acquisition history of the F-35 Lightning II? The F-35 could be one of the best, if not the best, stealth fighter jets in the world. The Israeli F-35I Adir has enjoyed an incredible combat record against Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
But, boy, what a lengthy, difficult, and expensive path it was to make the F-35 a reality. Not to mention the high cost of keeping them in the air for the next several decades. There have been many cost overruns and schedule slips along the way.
The Lightning II Will Cost $2 Trillion By 2088
If the F-35 is used until 2088, total life-cycle costs will exceed $2 trillion. They require extensive maintenance and modernization. The Department of Defense proposes spending $16.5 billion to keep the F-35 up to date through a new upgrade program.
For example, the thermal management system needs improvement. “This effort is needed to provide the F-35 with additional power and prevent systems, such as the radar, from overheating. But as these efforts were taking shape, we raised concerns that the military hadn’t fully defined the power and cooling requirements for the engine and related systems to support future capabilities. In addition, DOD had not assessed the costs and some of the technical risks of these new engine efforts,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Watchdogs Will Bare Their Teeth
With the kind of spending required for the Trump-class program, watchdogs such as the GAO, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Congressional Research Service will be following the money, and they may not like what they see.
The Think Tanks See Blood
Plus, the defense think tank community will be out in force to make sure the Trump-class never gets built. The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft will refuse to support this battleship, and some think tankers at the Stimson Center are liable to pick the spending proposals apart in the coming years.
Congressional Support for the Trump-class Is Not Assured
Individual Members of Congress may recoil at the cost of the Trump-class. Senator Rand Paul opposes increasing defense spending on the Republican side, and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren seeks to block military investment at any time. T
he Trump-class will need Congressional champions who support it.
For example, the new B-21 Raider bomber has Senator Mike Rounds firmly in its corner.
The B-21 will also be expensive, but Rounds sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and from that perch, he wields definite power and is ready for the B-21 to be based in his home state of South Dakota.
The B-21 Raider was unveiled to the public at a ceremony Dec. 2, 2022 in Palmdale, Calif. The B-21 will provide survivable, long-range, penetrating strike capabilities to deter aggression and strategic attacks against the United States, allies, and partners. (U.S. Air Force photo)
Artist rendering of a B-21 Raider in a hangar at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, one of the future bases to host the new airframe. AFCEC is leading a $1 billion construction effort at Ellsworth to deliver sustainable infrastructure to meet warfighter demands for bomber airpower. (U.S. Air Force graphic)
It is unclear whether the Trump-class has this kind of support. Moreover, anything named after Trump is liable to be lampooned by Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the left-leaning press. Once Trump is out of office, his USS Defiant will lose the necessary momentum to become a reality.
What If the Democrats Take Over the House and Senate?
Then there are midterm elections this year in which the Democrats could take leadership of both chambers of Congress. This would be bad news for the Trump-class, as the Left would have a field day pointing out that the Trump-class could be the most expensive ship of all time.
Thus, the Trump-class faces considerable headwinds. The vessel could become obsolete before it hits the water. There are just too many 21st-century threats against it. Enemy stealth airplanes will improve. Anti-ship hypersonic missiles could send the USS Defiant to the bottom of the sea. Stealth bombers could fire stand-off drones and cruise missiles at the Defiant, rendering it combat ineffective.
Opponents Against the Trump-class Are Already Emerging
Then there is the lack of Congressional support. Dovish members of the policy community in Washington will mount a pressure campaign that could make the Trump-class unpopular. GAO could write a scathing report that would make the Trump-class struggle. The press is already conducting oversight through articles that reveal the associated expenses. And what about the inevitable cost overruns and delays that every shipbuilding program has?
This ship could take much longer to build, and the price tag could spike substantially. The Trump-class is already seeing pushback and could be canceled when Trump is out of office. That is not a bright future for such an ambitious ship that looks like a vanity project for the president and his political party.
About the Author: Brent M. Eastwood, PhD
Author of now over 3,500 articles on defense issues, Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: A Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare, plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for US Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former US Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
xi-xi-xi
May 14, 2026 at 4:57 pm
In the coming ‘high-end’ war with china, use of nukes would surely be inevitable.
Nukes would easily neutralize huge vessels like the trump battlewagon.
Thus the trump warships are pointless. This doesn’t mean china itself can’t build such ships.
Chinese battleships could be quite useful if positioned in the taiwan strait.
Let’s see how a pipsqueak Navy like the new zealand navy behaves itself when there’s a massive warship patrolling the strait.
And maybe even useful if they’re put to sail on the Eastern side of the atlantic, assuming they all carry nuke-tipped SRBMs and MRBMs as standard armament.
xi-xi-xi
May 14, 2026 at 6:28 pm
(xi-xi-xi = die-die-die.)
America, or USA, has always and always been seen having a great penchant for developing novel weapons of war. Like battlefield nukes, hypersonic weapons, lasers, missile shields, etc, etc.
And then deploying them far far abroad, often right at the front doorsteps of rival nations.
Right now, US Navy despite having trouble with its ford carriers and the so-called f/x-aa jets, is still numero uno in the world.
Thus, the trump battleship is totally unnecessary, as a future democrat president could whip up mindless havoc (big international havoc) with them.
But, but, but a fleet of super duper chines warships cruising the eastern atlantic or southern atlantic, is a different cup of tea.
That’s because of the coming golden dome, the ultimate missile shield that will allow US to impose nuclear blackmail on rival states.
Thus, the fleet (carrying speedy low-flying rockets) sailing in waters quite close to america is very important, as it will compel washington to think twice before acting on impulse.
Golden dome = wunderwaffe of tomorrow.