1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

I am a Naval Reservist, officer, mariner and actual professional, unlike every single person involved in President Donald J. Trump's announcement of plans for a new “Trump class” of battleships—part of a so-called “Golden Fleet.” The proposal is militarily unserious, strategically obsolete, and almost certainly unfunded. But its true purpose appears less about national defense than political distraction. Battleships were rendered obsolete decades ago. The U.S. Navy stopped building them after World War II, and the last American battleship was decommissioned in 1992. Modern naval warfare relies on submarines, aircraft carriers, distributed missile platforms, cyber capabilities, and allied integration—not slow, missile-vulnerable behemoths designed to look impressive on screen. Even defense experts have openly stated that this proposal is “exactly what we don’t need.” This is especially stupid because for once, Trump was paying attention to something important and intelligent -- commercial shipbuilding. Both naval and commercial shipbuilding are in a crisis, exacerbated by Trump's imposition of tariffs on steel imports and vendetta against union labor. Instead of a glory project of a useless ship class, we would be better served investing in something with real dividends for American prosperity and defense.