Trump Announces New Warships to Be Named After Him

Reuters
By Michael Rainey and Yuval Rosenberg

Happy Monday! Congress is out until the new year, but President Trump continues to make news. Here's your evening update.

Trump Announces New Class of Warship Named for Him

President Trump announced Monday that the U.S. Navy is going to build a new class of large surface combat ships to be named after him.

The "Trump-class" warships will anchor a new "Golden Fleet" in an expanded Navy, Trump said at an event held at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Navy Secretary John Phelan.

"As you know, we're desperately in need of ships. Our ships ... some of them have gotten old and tired and obsolete," Trump said, adding that the new ship would be "100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built."

Although Trump referred to the new ships as "battleships," they are expected to be an update to the Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, currently the backbone of the U.S. fleet, with 74 in service. Despite being considerably smaller than the classic battleships of the World War II era, which the president referred to wistfully, the Trump-class warship will not be inexpensive, with an expected price tag in the billions of dollars per unit.

Trump said the Navy would start "almost immediately" with two ships in the Trump class, although no vendor has been named. The first ship of the class will reportedly be called the USS Defiant, to be followed by another 20 or 25 more, Trump said.

New frigates, too: The Navy announced last week that it also plans to create a new class of small combat ships as part of Trump's effort to expand the Navy and bolster the nation's military industrial base.

The announcement came soon after the Pentagon canceled a contract for a new generation of Constellation-class frigates, based on an Italian design, due to massive cost overruns and construction delays.

The new class of frigates will be based on the Coast Guard's Legend-class National Security Cutter, built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. After Ingalls produces the lead ship, currently scheduled to launch in 2028, the Navy plans to work with additional shipyards to speed up production.

Questions about the Golden Fleet: Phelan said earlier this month that Trump had signed off on a plan to build more ships at a faster pace while expanding the nation's shipbuilding capacity, something the president spoke about Monday while providing few details.

The effort involves a significant number of new ships, built around the large surface combatant armed with long-range missiles that Trump has reportedly referred to as a "big beautiful ship" - a new class that he is now naming after himself.

In addition, the fleet will include the new frigates and at least 49 new support ships, such as tankers. Phelan told The Wall Steet Journal that the White House would request funds from Congress for the fleet next year.

Some critics, though, are questioning Trump's approach. Mark Montgomery, a former rear admiral with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative national security think tank, said Trump's plan is "exactly what we don't need" given the rising competition with China.

"That is not what these are focused on-they are focused on the president's visual that a battleship is a cool-looking ship," Montgomery said.

Bryan Clark, a naval expert with the Hudson Institute, told the Journal that the Navy needs more ships that can fire long-range missiles, especially for the purpose of defending increasingly vulnerable aircraft carriers, and it's not clear that the new ship fits the bill.

"You need something like two-to-three times the size of an [Arleigh Burke-class destroyer]," Clark said, adding, "you need some ships with that type of size so that you can have the defenses to protect the carrier, and the reach to be able to attack targets from a place where you can be survivable."

ICYMI: Trump Announces Deal with Nine Drugmakers to Lower Prices

President Trump announced Friday that a group of major drugmakers has agreed to his "most favored nation" policy and will reduce prices on medications sold in the U.S.

In exchange for agreeing to lower prices and invest in production facilities domestically, the nine companies - Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Amgen, Gilead, Sanofi, GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech and Novartis - will be rewarded with a three-year period shielding them from Trump's tariffs on pharmaceutical products.

Among the drugs seeing price cuts, Bristol Myers Squibb said it will provide Eliquis, a popular blood thinner, for free to Medicaid.

In July, the Trump administration sent letters to 17 drugmakers demanding that they lower prices and move production to the U.S., and most have now reached an agreement with the administration, although the full terms of the latest deals have not been released.

"As of today, 14 out of the 17 largest pharmaceutical companies ... have now agreed to drastically lower drug prices for ... the American people and the American patients," Trump said at Friday. "This represents the greatest victory for patient affordability in the history of American health care, by far, and every single American will benefit."

The agreement leaves three major drugmakers - Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and Regeneron - still seeking a deal.

Trump also said he planned to pressure health insurance companies to lower their prices. "I'm going to call in the insurance companies that are making so much money, and they have to make less - a lot less," he said. "Maybe we can have reasonable health care without having to cut them out."

Republican Appropriators Announce Deal on Spending Levels

The Republican leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees took another step forward in the process of funding the government for fiscal year 2026, announcing a deal Saturday on discretionary spending levels for the year and the allocations for the nine annual spending bills that must still be passed ahead of a January 30 funding deadline.

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said his deal with Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins calls for total fiscal 2026 spending below the level projected in the stopgap spending bill set to expire next month. He did not specify an amount or what would be cut.

"This pathway forward aligns with President Trump's clear direction to rein in runaway, beltway-driven spending," he said in a statement. "Completing the FY26 process through full-year appropriations will enact America First priorities, replace Biden-era policies, and eliminate the risk of yet another Democrat-manufactured shutdown in January."

Congress still faces significant challenges to completing its appropriations work by the shutdown deadline that's now less than six weeks away. The Senate left for its two-week holiday break last week without passing a five-bill "minibus" package delayed by objections from both parties. Republican leaders had resolved the concerns raised by GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Mike Lee of Utah. But Senate leaders were forced to give up on a late push to vote on the package before the new year after Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado announced they placed a hold on the funding bill to demand that the White House reverse a decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in their state.

"President Trump is attacking Colorado because we refuse to bend to his corrupt administration," the senators said in a statement. "His reckless decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research will have lasting, devastating impacts across the country."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer both say they want to get the annual appropriations bills done by the end of January. But bipartisan, bicameral negotiations will only start now that Republican appropriators reached their own agreement on overall spending levels.

"My Republican colleagues have wasted precious weeks with petty squabbles and partisan infighting while the American people are left to wonder whether their concerns will ever be addressed," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Monday.

Republicans and Democrats have lots left to negotiate on the nine remaining funding bills and little time to do it, raising the likelihood that another stopgap spending bill will be necessary next month if lawmakers want to avoid a shutdown.

Appropriators will also have to contend with demands from House Republican hardliners who want to ensure that certain spending levels are lower than they are currently. Those fiscal hawks could threaten to disrupt the dealmaking process if they aren't happy with the details of the funding bills being negotiated.

The bottom line: Congress will return on January 5 with little time left before the shutdown deadline at the end of the month.

Number of the Day: $3,000

The Trump administration has tripled the "exit bonus" it is offering to undocumented immigrants who voluntarily leave the United States. The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that those immigrants in the country illegally who sign up to self-deport through the CBP Home app by the end of the year will get $3,000, triple the original $1,000 payout, as well as a free flight to their home countries. The administration's move is part of an effort to ramp up mass deportations. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that 1.9 million people have self-deported since January.

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