By Simon CrerarShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberSpeaking virtually to service members at Mar-a-Lago on Thanksgiving, President Donald Trump has claimed that he personally redesigned new Coast Guard ships because “I’m a looks person.”
The United States recently announced plans to boost its maritime law enforcement fleets amid China's continued expansion of its naval and coast guard presence in the Pacific.
...Why It Matters
The president’s remarks to troops and sailors came weeks after the U.S. Coast Guard exercised a $507 million contract option with Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana to fund initial construction of 10 Sentinel-class fast response cutters as part of its fleet modernization and mission expansion efforts.
China operates both the world's largest navy and coast guard by hull count, according to a Pentagon assessment, helping Beijing expand its reach and influence beyond East Asia. The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy has over 370 operational ships and submarines, while the China Coast Guard fields more than 150 vessels over 1,000 tons.
The Sentinel-class fleet, currently with 59 operational vessels, will increase to 77, with the first new vessel expected to be delivered in 2028. They will join the larger U.S. Coast Guard fleet of over 250 ships.
What To Know
In remarks to U.S. service personnel at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thanksgiving, President Trump claimed he personally altered the design of new Coast Guard cutters.
“As you know, we’ve ordered a lot of Coast Guard cutters, brand new, beautiful, the best machines in the world,” said Trump. “The fastest, the best, the best maneuverability, they tell me. I said, 'How’s the speed and the maneuverability?'”
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“I’m a looks person,” said Trump.
“I wanted the hull to be perfect, I sort of redesigned the hull a little bit – the hulls – but we ordered a lot.”
“We’re ordering ice breakers too," he said to the assembled service people.
"We have 11 of them being built right now; we only had one.”
...The administration also recently finalized a multibillion-dollar agreement with Finland to build a new fleet of U.S. icebreakers to bolster America’s presence in the Arctic.
Trump has a long record of making grandiose or disputed claims about his personal role in policy and projects. Past examples include saying he invented the economic phrase “priming the pump”, the descriptor “fake news”, and the claim he was once named “Michigan’s Man of the Year,” an award journalists have been unable to find any record of.
The U.S. Coast Guard is in the middle of its most significant recapitalization in decades, racing to catch up with China and Russia in both the Pacific and the Arctic as Beijing rapidly expands its navy and coast guard fleets.
Who Actually Designs The Ships?
Coast Guard cutters and icebreakers are designed by teams of naval architects and shipyards under Coast Guard and Navy acquisition programs, not by the president.
Current Arctic Security Cutter and Polar Security Cutter designs are being produced by U.S. and Finnish-led industrial consortia.
What People Are Saying
President Trump to Coast Guard service members at Mar-a-Lago: “The jobs you do, the ways you go into those seas, I wouldn’t want to do it. You want to do it, but I wouldn’t want to do it. So I thank you for that.”
The U.S. Coast Guard a press release on September 10: "Expanding the [fast response cutter] fleet continues the Coast Guard's modernization through Force Design 2028, an initiative introduced by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to transform the Coast Guard into a more agile, capable and responsive fighting force."
What Happens Next
For the Coast Guard, what ultimately matters is less who gets aesthetic credit for the hulls and more whether the new cutters arrive on time, perform as advertised and help the U.S. keep pace with China and Russia in increasingly contested seas.
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