Here’s what I think has happened. Bear with me …
DDGX was not proceeding at pace.
Constellation class was an epic case of NAVSEA over engineering an already well engineered design, which stalled and then killed the ship class.
LCS was/has been an epic screw up.
CGX died years ago. Ticonderoga class retired without a replacement.
Burke Fight III is the most powerful ship in the world save 1 class… the 2 ship Kirov Class of the Russian Navy.
Just this month the 30,000 ton Admiral Nakhimov ended phase 1 sea trials post refit. She is by far the most powerful surface warship in the world.
Trump would have been well briefed about this ship and likely has waterline and missile load envy.
More concerningly, in August 2025 Russia finally started building not 1 but 2 Lider Class ships. These were thought to be a class of large destroyers but it turns out they are actually 19-20,000 ton CGN. The first will supposedly hit the water in 2030 but we’ll watch that close because it can take them sometimes 20 years to build one ship. It’s certainly doubtful about 2030 and with good reason. But again, Trump will have been briefed and advised he’s got nothing in the pipeline like that ship because DDX project is moving slow and growing fat.
Meanwhile Japan, South Korea and now Germany and Italy are matching/ over matching Burke Flight 2 (except in sensors). That will have Trump pissed off because again, he will have been briefed.
So, he threw DDX into the trash heap and announced this new ship and proclaimed the USN will have the BBC of all ships. Because that’s how he thinks, and that’s how his sycophants serve him.
And then there is the PLAN. Almost certainly they got drunk last night in celebration. Likely this morning they gleefully started to put together a plan to build a bigger and better ship than the Trump class (I) just because they easily can, and (III) they likely also enjoy trolling him. And they’ll have it announced to have it done (cheaply) far in advance of commissioning the Defiant and probably email him the shipyard satellite mages to prove it.
But the fault for this doesn’t lie exclusively with Trump. It lies with the USN and NAVSEA for not advancing DDGX at rapid pace, after they already dropped the ball on CGX, Zumwalt, LCS, Constellation and even the submarines (to a lesser extent).
This BBX Trump Class will die a spectacular and expensive death in the slips, but the medium term future of the USN surface fleet is now in a state that is a cause for concern if not alarm.
If you’re Mark Carney and advised of all if this, you’re going to start rapidly building out your navy to replace the second allied one in a row that is trying to commit bureaucratic negligence with a large side order of autocratic suicide. (Whitehall/ RN and Trump/USN).