Ranking Member Courtney Statement After President Trump Announces New “Trump-Class” Battleship

NORWICH, CT - Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Ranking Member of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, released the following statement after President Trump announced the new "Trump Class" battleship.

"Congress has already invested in strengthening our Navy's surface fleet by authorizing development of a new generation of large combatant destroyers made of steel - the DDG(X). Its program office opened in 2021," Courtney said. "Today's vague proposal to bring back battleships raises many questions for Congress to scrutinize. There is a reason that the Navy stopped building battleships in 1944 and that President Ronald Reagan's 600 ship fleet, and even President Trump in his first term, did not choose to build large vulnerable battleships whose range is questionable. China's massive development of 2,000-mile range missiles has increased the vulnerability of all surface ships - which is one of the reasons that the Seapower Subcommittee, over the last 15 years, has boosted submarine production, leading to an undersea fleet which today totals 55 attack subs and 14 additional ballistic subs, not 30, as was incorrectly stated at the President's press conference."

"Congress just completed, and the President signed into law, the annual defense policy bill, which authorizes a full backlog of surface and undersea shipbuilding. Adding a new class of ships with no details screams out for responsive oversight," Courtney continued. "Just as it did in the 2026 annual defense policy bill, Congress will carry out its constitutional oversight duty mandated in Article One, Section 8 "to provide and maintain a Navy.'"

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