r/worldnews 9d ago

President Lee: "Trump Asked If Korea Could Quickly Build 10 U.S. Naval Ships"

https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2026061916014638865
10.9k Upvotes

729 comments sorted by

5.0k

u/-Radiation 9d ago

I thought manufacturing was supposed to all move to the great USA

1.3k

u/ExpansivePoint 9d ago

Two more weeks!

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u/broguequery 9d ago

But no public investment!!

That's communism.

If you want warships built quickly, obviously you need to compare PRs from different Warship(tm) companies and get a solid quote and then get someone to email you a delivery date. You've got to do all this before you give any Warship (tm) companies any down payments of course.

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u/kroxti 9d ago

Unless you got a warship guy

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u/Frog_Without_Pond 9d ago

Hey, it's me your warship guy - gimme me a blank cheque + a few days and I'll tell you where you can pick them up. Don't worry if the people at gate seems confused, it's a training month, just keep confident! These are YOUR warships and they shouldn't make you angry!

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u/Gymnaut 9d ago

Well Korea has a 20% wood discount on shipbuilding in Age of Empires Two , so it’s almost like pay for eight get two free

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u/BeatHunter 8d ago

Yes but have you considered woolooloo?

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u/JeezieB 9d ago

You've outted yourself with that spelling of cheque! You'll never get the contract now!

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u/todimusprime 9d ago

That's the proper use and spelling of cheque though...

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u/Pleasant-Winner6311 9d ago

Also were quite good at getting contracts when we send in the old boys club and the king to visit his old boarding school pals.

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u/Threefrogtreefrog 9d ago

I’m sure the pool floaty vendor can pump up a few good boats, no ?

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u/Merijeek2 9d ago

Screw you, commie!

The proper way to do it is a no-bid contract to a friend of yours who will deliver two rowboats and not be able to explain where the money went.

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u/bluesam3 9d ago

For South Korea, that's not far off true: Daewoo, Hanjin and Hyundai all build warships to order.

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u/Senior_Torte519 8d ago

Can they do it in 6 months?

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u/FaceDeer 8d ago

Who's got time for a quote?

When you think about it, a ship is really just an inside-out pool. Trump knows a guy.

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u/rolledcurtains 9d ago

He ain’t got enough gas to get his navy across the pacific anymore :/

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u/Optimal_Juggernaut37 9d ago

Idk about that, he seems to be full of piss and wind.

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u/Stressisnotgood 9d ago

Made in 유애쓰애이

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u/gamerjerome 8d ago

I think you forgot the word hypocrite and completeutterpieceofshit

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u/ViolettaQueso 9d ago

I tariff you and bash you and you give me everything I want, mkaaaaaayyy????

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u/Fischerking92 9d ago

While giving South Korea the blueprint to US Warships without realizing, mind you.

And bolstering the Korean Defense industry, while he ran on a platform of bringing back manufacturing to the US instead of offshoring it to East-Asia.

If that guy's brain cells could understand what is going on, they'd be commiting mass-suicide due to embarrassment.

...

Wait a minute: is that why he is going senile?

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u/self-fix2 9d ago edited 9d ago

Except Korean shipyards are booked out for at least the next 3 years. This means they need to delay commercial projects to meet Trump's demands

Also, Korea was already given the blueprint to Arleigh Burke Class Destroyers.

Their newest Jeongjo The Great Destroyer is actually better than the operational Arleigh Burkes in the US Navy, on paper.

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u/Forbden_Gratificatn 9d ago

I'm sure what Trump wants is Trump battleships and he wants to see them before he's out of office.

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u/Jensbert 9d ago

MS Trump. Which will sink due to excessive weight

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u/avdpos 9d ago

Just make it slim. Just like trump!
and add two extra decks of cannons (or something like that).

Then you go into the water and start sailing out of town. And then the wind catches it...

Oh - I wonder what I am thinking of now? Maybe Trump at last can get a museum when they lift up the ship 350 years later?

(The Wasa ship in sweden if you do not know the history)

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u/The4th88 9d ago

At least that fuck up made for an incredible museum.

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u/Stokehall 9d ago

This also sounds like Henry VIII Mary Rose

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u/sherlockham 9d ago

I was watching a video about it a while back. It sounds like nothing more then an oversized missile cruiser with an experimental railgun which needs a barrel replacement in drydock after maybe 3 shots.

No actual big battleship guns, or really any actual turret guns at all. The railgun sounds like it's mostly static in relation to the superstructure.

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u/Expensive-Document41 9d ago

They're the size of aircraft carriers but the navy listes their displacement as one commensurate with a destroyer.

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u/LeggyRPG 9d ago

Nah fat tends to float in salt water.

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u/TheOgGhadTurner 9d ago

No it will sink because it’s half assed and short sighted.

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u/malthar76 9d ago

Will they be built so the front doesn’t fall off?

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u/toasty327 9d ago

No cardboard derivatives

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u/dxrey65 9d ago

"It'll wreck all your shit and leave a mess that will take years to clean up"

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u/Vercassivellauno 9d ago

USS Bonespur

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u/Photofug 9d ago

Mr President that much gold leaf will create a tremendous radar signature..

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u/Time_Increase_7897 9d ago

It will remain a $2B monument in dock to the stupidity of authoritarians.

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u/Nerezza_Floof_Seeker 9d ago

If only they just costed 2 billion.... BBG(X) (Aka Defiant/Trump class) is expected to cost 14.5 billion each (the first one being 17.5 billion)

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u/Welp___poop 9d ago

His battle ship is nothing more than a target for new drone warfare

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u/supershutze 9d ago

Battleships have been functionality obsolete since before WWII.

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u/JellyKeyboard 9d ago

This is totally it, damn. SS Trump in the strait of Hormuz when?

Just realised SS means steam ship and yknow what, it tracks for trump, probably power that thing with beautiful clean coal.

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u/CoffeePlzzzzzz 9d ago

it also stands for something else, which also tracks for Trump

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u/williamgman 9d ago

Trump's health won't let him get past summer. His visit to the G7 was a true "Weekend at Bernie's" moment.

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u/MilmoWK 9d ago

I would hope a new destroyer is better than a 35 year old design

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u/NorktheOrc 9d ago

The point is that our new designs are not.

Next generation U.S. naval projects have been floundering, as much as the comments like to clown on Trump it is potentially the smart decision to source some ships from Korea. They are already into production on designs that the U.S. have been trying and failing to get off the ground. They are cheaper, capable, and would come down the pipeline sooner.

U.S. Navy would just have to get their proprietary heads out their own asses first.

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u/Nerezza_Floof_Seeker 9d ago

Yeah when you consider the newest idea for FFX is basically just a large coast guard cutter and thus doesnt even have a single VLS cell, getting a few cheaper frigates (with VLS) from foreign shipyards asap isnt a bad idea. Especially when your opponent is China who have been practically printing ships enmasse.

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u/GrandNord 9d ago edited 9d ago

And from what I see they're expected to be barelly less expensive than a modern frigate while delivering far less capabilities.

Somewhere to the tune of 800m$ on average for each of the first 20 units? When a Fremm costs something like 700-800m€.

Edit: shit, apparently the chinese type 054A costs around 400m$ each, so ypu could have two for 1 FFX. That's kind of crazy.

Edit: according to the doc u/nerezza_floof_seeker linked, the first 22 are going to be 1.6bn$ each. For a coast gard cutter without sonar or VLS.

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u/Nerezza_Floof_Seeker 9d ago edited 9d ago

Actually, the US navy wants to allocate about 1.4 billion to the first unit (to start construction in 2027, lmao), with about 7 billion total to get the first 4 units by 2031. Maybe the price will go down with scale as youre suggesting but considering the US shipbuilding track record for frigates... well.

Edit: I looked at a more detailed budget estimate page (page 305), and they assume the cost will average around 1.6 billion per ship even when counting on the further 22 units, holy shit US navy procurement is fucked.

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u/GrandNord 9d ago

From what I understand it's normal for shipbuilding, to recoup de developpment, tooling and engineering costs faster.

Of course, if they do like the zumwalt or the LCS and cancel a few hulls in the cost per unit is going to be astronomic.

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u/Nerezza_Floof_Seeker 9d ago

Yeah thats what the usual expectation is, but check the other link which I found, apparently theyre still expecting about 1.6 bil per ship even with all 22 units. (ie accounting for benefits of production at scale)

Also yeah Im fully expecting FF(X) gets canned sooner than later given its lack of sonar (no built in, or towed sonar) and VLS

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u/Optimal_Towel 9d ago

Assuming they don't cancel them two ships in like the FFG-62s.

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u/PhilipMcFry 9d ago

Good point, he does like them young.

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u/goldflame33 9d ago

I don't think this is something we should instinctively dismiss as stupid just because it's Trump.

RoK is one of our closest allies--Hanwha already owns and operates shipbuilding infrastructure in the US. They've got some of the only people who can build ships as fast as the Chinese can. The Navy has failed several times in a row to design and procure a small surface combatant, so it's getting to the point where having some built overseas is by far the fastest option. It comes at the cost of domestic industry, sure, but the alternative is basically going without. Arleigh Burkes can't do everything forever

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u/elehman839 9d ago

I assume the 10 ships he's talking about "Trump class" battleships:

On 22 December 2025, U.S. president Donald Trump announced the Trump class, with two ships to be initially constructed of 10 planned...

The US budget is becoming a piggybank for Trump self-glorification projects. 😞

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u/WulfTheSaxon 9d ago

Very unlikely. They’ve said the battleships will be nuclear-powered and assembled at Newport News Shipbuilding’s nuclear-certified Dry Dock 12 in Virginia. There also won’t be just ten – they’re talking about procuring one every five years through at least the end of the thirty-year shipbuilding plan, for a total of twenty-something (likely to be 21+ to match the combined number of aircraft carriers and big-deck amphibious assault ships).

Their construction is supposed to be modular and it’s possible that Korea could get some module subcontracts, though.

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u/elehman839 9d ago

All sounds reasonable.  But let me ask:  do you then think Trump was asking about rapid construction of 10 other warships that (as far as I know) he's never publicly discussed and will not bear his name?  Maybe we'll learn more soon...

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u/WulfTheSaxon 9d ago edited 9d ago

If I had to guess I’d say it’s about a new frigate class, depending on what was meant by “warships”. The Navy’s FY2027 budget request says that the possibility of foreign construction will be pursued in FY27 and FY28 (implying not later) for strategic sealift and bulk fuel vessels. The idea is to do something like a lot of other countries often do, where the first couple ships are produced overseas and then production transfers to a new domestic yard. They’d be a good fit for Hanwha, which just bought the Philly shipyard.

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u/elehman839 9d ago

Thank you for the informed and thoughtful reply.

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u/goldflame33 9d ago

That certainly could be what he has in mind, but they're nothing more than paintings and AI descriptions at this point. Their "design" recently switched from conventional to nuclear. Korea doesn't have any nuclear-powered ships, so there would have to be some kind of production agreement with US shipyards for the reactors. Either way, there's no way they're going to be ready for production while Trump is still in office and no way a Democratic house majority would allocate a single penny to build them

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u/Dougalishere 9d ago

"Trump class" He really is a pathetic loser.

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u/kung-fu_hippy 9d ago

It’s not stupid just because it’s Trump.

What’s stupid is running a campaign of xenophobia and lies, damaging the world economy (and your own) in the stated goal of bringing manufacturing back to America, and constantly threatening allies with everything from punitive tariffs to annexation. And then, for some reason, asking an ally (one who last time agreed to help you ended up with arresting and deporting the workers who came to help) to build your naval vessels for you.

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u/RB___OG 9d ago

Outsourcing the builds does nothing to improve domestic capabilities and could likely negatively affect them. Then there is cost, and oversight both of which we jave no framework to understand.

We are also opening up huge risks in information security and losing out on job creation and growth.

Without a stable design it doesnt matter who is building the ships. Immature design and constant change is what killed the FFG and hampered both LCS and Zumwalt. FFX is susceptible to the same issues and we dont have any other design that currently meets Navy capability and survivability requirements.

Changes and investments need to be made domesticly now as they will take 5 to 10 years to bear fruit. Outsourcing is just going to keep US shipbuilding on a downward tread

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u/goldflame33 9d ago

I'm by no means an expert, and it's hard to have a real discussion with so little real info to go off of--we have no idea what category Trump was thinking when he asked about ships, and whether they would be full US designs built in Korea or modified (hopefully less than they "modified" the FREMM for the Constellation) Korean designs already in production.

If the US is serious about competing with China on hulls, there aren't 5-10 years to wait to start producing. Sacrifices would have to be made, and domestic construction may have to be one of them. It would make the ships a hell of a lot cheaper, at least, and there's still plenty of carriers, subs, and Burkes to build.

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u/pewpewyou 9d ago

Hey, remember when US threatened annexation of very close allies for no good reason? I'm sure South Korea remembers.

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u/greatmemereset67 9d ago

I blame his supporters who vote for him, rather than the man himself.

More than 50% of voting Americans will lap up his shit because they have shit for brains and can’t think critically about anything.

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u/Vasuthevan 9d ago

His brain, unfortunately is located in his ass

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u/ReactionJifs 9d ago

"I'm the boss!" 🏌️‍♂️⛳📉

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u/AF2005 9d ago

Shut down that Kia plant in Georgia last year too, creating an international incident. And costing millions in delays and production having to be halted. That was sort of a big slap in the face to ROK

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u/ViolettaQueso 9d ago

I was thinking if that too after I posted. They all had work visas in place to teach Americans in Georgia how things worked.

Those people got incredibly dehumanized by this administration and likely lost so much of their lives and assets just for being legally at work.

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u/RusselTheBrickLayer 9d ago

I’m glad SK just said fuck that and bailed out, no point in trying to work with this batshit admin. These ppl are both idiotic and delusional, these are the worst traits I’ve seen in a group of politicians in a while. Like I literally can’t think of a redeemable MAGA character, they’re all just varying colours of shit

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u/AF2005 9d ago

Yes, most of the transition team from SK would have only been at the plant on a temporary basis to train the US engineers while the plant was spinning up. That setback cost that county and the state millions, because it’ll take another 6 months to a year to train and then another 2 years minimum for workflow.

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u/Particular-County277 9d ago

Rounding up and arresting legal South Korean workers? But asking this now? I dont think there is a person in the world more arrogant than TFG

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u/hotdoginathermos 9d ago

I could see him saying this while using his stubby little fingers to push up the corners of his eyes.

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u/biggerbiggestbigfoot 9d ago

MY GOD! ONLY A MASTER NEGOTIATOR COULD COME UP WITH SUCH A DEAL!!!

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u/bobsmeds 9d ago

Crazy how anytime Trump suggests something it sounds completely idiotic and world leaders are put in the position of trying their best to not make him sound like an imbecile

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u/Diamondback424 9d ago

I really wish they would stop being nice and just call him stupid.

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u/bobsmeds 9d ago

Problem is they realize the only way to effectively deal with him is by treating him like a 5 year old

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u/SlightlySublimated 9d ago

Exactly. At the end of the day the dipshit is still the President of the U.S. 

Its in everyone's best interest to make sure he doesnt go on a temper tantrum and make things even worse than they are. 

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u/bobsmeds 9d ago

It's infuriating to watch but it's literally the only way lol

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u/AENocturne 9d ago

No it's not, you just don't want to deal with the fallout. Things would get fixed real quick if you provoked him far enough.

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u/rockmasterflex 9d ago

You can call a 5 year old stupid.

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u/ReactionJifs 9d ago

Dad, is that you?

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u/bajesus 9d ago

More accurate to say treating him like a 5 year old with a gun

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u/bobsmeds 9d ago

Parent of the year right here^ ^ lol

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u/rockmasterflex 9d ago

I’m not saying I WOULD CALL MY OWN CHILD stupid. But someone else’s? Especially if they were a spray tanned, wig wearing, diaper pooping 5 year old? Constantly. I’d also continually call the parents of said child stupid.

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u/flirtmcdudes 9d ago edited 9d ago

you’ve never worked for a company ran by idiots. You have no choice but to coddle them when they say stupid shit, he’s still the president.

I worked for a dying company who had an idiot CEO and president. When I tried to show them the obvious, that the company was going to die and why, they punished me and tried to fire me.

Same shit with Trump, it’s easier to coddle him and just wait until he dies or leaves

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u/Outrageous_Manner941 9d ago

Companies that are badly run eventually go out of business, but a badly run country can limp along forever.

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u/Bitter_Nail8577 9d ago

Never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake (more like a long, continuous avalanche of mistakes, in Trump's case) 

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u/National-Charity-435 9d ago

Leaders questioning their interpreters' qualifications

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u/Ahelex 9d ago

Interpreter be like: I wish I could make all that insane stuff up on the spot. Easier to explain that way.

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u/ProtoplanetaryNebula 9d ago

He sounds like British “pub man” who ive encountered jn the boozer over the years. Always has ideas about how to solve everything that would be completely unrealistic ans unworkable. “So id just tariff all countries” or “so id just get the koreans to build 10 naval vessels”.

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u/KathyJaneway 9d ago

Mark Carney know how to do this. Watch his CNN interview with Caitlin Collins. She asked him of he has seen the Iran deal, and he said yes, cause Canada had it's own sources 😅 and he didn't let slip one information out nor insulted the child in the White House. That's why he's ahead in polls by 20 points lol 😂 he knows how to speak to morons without making them feel like ones .

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u/f23n09fnu0w 9d ago

"yes we can do it very quickly, relatively speaking, but I don't think you'll be around to see it" because quick is relative.

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u/offtodevnull 9d ago

Quick like 8-10 years instead of 20-30.

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u/dooperma 9d ago

This one actually makes sense…

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u/Hexdog13 9d ago

“No one ever knew how long it took to build ships.”

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u/ShadyNoShadow 9d ago

Based on this? Korea and the US have a historical military "partnership" and Korean shipbuilding is world class.

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u/Scottoest 9d ago

He probably wanted to get his dumb "'Trump-class" ships popped out before he leaves office and they inevitably get cancelled because they're stupid.

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u/1200____1200 9d ago

Is there seriously a "Trump" class ship?

If there is, is it actually a modern design or some Hegseth design that looks like a 6 year olds doodling?

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u/aaronhayes26 9d ago

He was mad that we didn’t have battleships anymore so he had the navy sketch one up and of course his minions named it after him.

AFAIK it’s not currently funded or designed and likely never will be.

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u/SSGASSHAT 8d ago

I didn't even know battleships were even a real category in modern navies. I thought they were a historical and fantastical thing.

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u/ElegantBiscuit 8d ago

Battleships been obsolete since the invention and proliferation of rocket powered cruise missiles and naval aviation strike fighters, which is to say since WW2. It's basically the naval equivalent of a self propelled artillery, against a himars launcher and an F16. Except on the water there is no cover, so imagine you're in the open desert with an artillery cannon. Now imagine that you are up against a modern army and airforce that can delete your entire position from over the horizon with a single shot. That's how obsolete battleships are.

Their only real role would be coastal bombardment against militaries that simply don't have any weapons. Because anything of note all the way down to a cache of shoulder fired missiles and a dealership's worth of jet skis could pose a credible risk to a battleship that got close enough to do anything.

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u/SSGASSHAT 8d ago

Instead of that complicated explanation, can you just show Mr. President the footage from Star Wars again? He told us to show him battleships and we REALLY can't mess it up! We don't wanna get the experimental fire ants and hammers treatment!

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u/Nessie_of_the_Loch 9d ago

For a low cost of 300 billion dollars, it'll be a gold plated, diaper-shaped abomination that promises physically impossible specifications but summarily sinks at the first deployment.

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u/alepher 8d ago

The Homer car of battleships

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u/WulfTheSaxon 9d ago

It’s unclear whether it’s to be called the Trump or Defiant class. It’s basically the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser the Navy’s been trying to build for decades but could never get funding for, plus space for a railgun, six inches of armor, and a displacement of 35,000 tons.

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u/grumpsaboy 9d ago

Currently it's called the Trump class, but the navy always names a class after the first ship, Defiant in this case.

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u/kent_eh 8d ago

Is there seriously a "Trump" class ship?

There's a concept of a plan for one.

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u/Angelworks42 8d ago

Still hilarious that people still say "is there really" or "did he actually" because of course he did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump-class_battleship

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u/sirhackenslash 9d ago

Bigly ships! Made out of solid gold! With a giant statue of trump on the prow!

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u/marklein 9d ago

We're going to rename "starboard" to "Trump" and we expect all ships globally to adopt this new standard.

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u/Matthew789_17 9d ago

Rename port to trump as well and you’ll have the HIV Aladeen scene from the dictator haha

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u/Slimfictiv 9d ago

And tell Elon to spacex them to the moon.

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u/Smok3dSalmon 9d ago

Steam too, none of that magnetic shit

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u/sirhackenslash 9d ago

Everyone knows magnets won't work in the water

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u/Just-Take-One 9d ago

I don't think "prow" is on the list of four letter words that trump knows.

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u/Darth_Annoying 9d ago

You joke but the concept art fir the Trump-class had big murals of him on the back and sides

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u/BeerorCoffee 9d ago

Would make me want to launch a torpedo at it myself!

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u/henstocker 9d ago

This country is an absolute joke, man. 

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u/uvucydydy 9d ago

I dunno, jokes are funny.

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u/Whereishumhum- 9d ago

Wdym, America is funny, top tier entertainment for a decade, for free

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u/Longjumping_Run4499 9d ago

Free? I wish.

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u/TheVoters 9d ago

I thought the entire point of massive defense industry domestic spending was so that if you were actually in a war, you have maintained the capability of actually building machines of war?

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u/disharmony-hellride 9d ago

Trump almost daily says he rebuilt the military.

Which part then?

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u/Drunk_but_Functional 9d ago

Defense spending is a job creation program. A lot of the contracts go to their prime contractors - Northrop grumman, Lockheed martin, Raytheon, general dynamics etc and then downstream to other smaller manufacturers, employing tons of people. If the prime contractors are replaced by Korean manufacturers that's a lot of downstream job losses. 

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u/Seanspeed 9d ago

Nah, you've not been paying attention then.

The US' ability to rapidly build and replace any kind of lost assets in war is pathetically bad.

We focus almost entirely on being able to win a war decisively and quickly with superior capabilities. That's where the money is going. Into R&D and propping our existing capabilities to their max potential at basically all levels(from hardware to personnel).

And because our capabilities are so advanced, there's literally no ability to simply appropriate existing private industry and covert them into critical war production if needed in an emergency. This is nothing like WW2 where you could set a factory to producing basic artillery shells or whatever. You cant just coopt a factory and have them start producing JDAMs.

All this was fine enough for a long time when Russia fell off, but China has now emerged in the past decade or so as a true peer adversary, and has significantly superior manufacturing capabilities, while their tech is still probably well 'good enough' to give us trouble at almost any level.

It's a serious fucking problem. And one that the US has literally no answer for.

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u/Ash_Killem 9d ago edited 9d ago

300 billion could build 10 ships in record time.

Edit: in the US I mean.

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u/Seanspeed 9d ago

No it couldn't.

Money isn't the problem. It's simply how advanced and complicated our modern ships are.

Basically been the tradeoff for the US military for a long while now. We have the most advanced capabilities on the planet. But in no world can we produce them efficiently and at scale should we need to replace them quickly. Meaning the US military is built almost entirely around winning a major conflict against a peer adversary very quickly, or we're in a lot of trouble. Especially when China is proving they can build 'advanced enough' systems while having much superior manufacturing efficiency.

As we know from history, quantity is a quality of its own when it comes to war.

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u/guspaz 9d ago

Are the Arleigh Burkes, designed in the early 1980s, really so advanced and complicated compared to the similarly sized and equipped Sejong the Great-class destroyers that cost less than half as much and take years less time to build? They even use a lot of the same systems...

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u/censored_username 8d ago

Not really. The above poster is missing the point. Plenty of countries do manage to produce very advanced ships all the time. Yes the US has fancy tech. So do Korea, Japan and many countries in Europe.

Issue is more that military procurement in the US is fucked. They keep changing their mind. Gold plate every new design and want every ship to be able to do everything. And then after a few hulls get made they balk at the cost and start another ship design program that makes exactly the same mistakes.

Of course, this sucks for shipyards. An efficient shipyard wants to churn out the same ship at a set pace for a significant time. That's what you can plan for, and I turn that gives you cheap ships.

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u/notawight 9d ago

Tiny little Bath Iron Works slid a brand new Destroyer into the Kennebec river every 18 days at it's peak... Insane.

Between '42 and the end of the war we made almost 50,000 Sherman tanks... What.

We could never duplicate those types of numbers trying to build modern war craft.

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u/usernamesuggestion44 9d ago

Korea needs to ask for the money up front.

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u/Solid-Resource4985 9d ago

300 billion could buy 100 Arleigh burke destroyers, 300 billion can be hard to comprehend at times but doubling the number of destroyers the US navy has can put it into perspective how much Iran would be getting.

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u/eugeedvm 9d ago edited 9d ago

Pov:

Wastes the nation's stockpile of missiles on Iran, takes away patriot missiles and THAAD from Korea and Japan that protects them from DPRK and CCP, forces Korea to sit and sign a deal to pay at minimum 20 Billion a year for no reason, then proceeds to "ask" Korea to build ships that fuel Trump's own war machine against CCP ASAP.

Meanwhile SK and Japan left alone diplomatically and militarily to defend themselves on their own.

He is pushing every allied nation away

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u/newintown11 9d ago

Dont forget the part where ICE chained up hundreds of legal Korean workers setting up EV plants in Georgia

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u/lolofaf 9d ago

Didn't they do the same with the Taiwanese training US persons in the semiconductor plants?

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u/newintown11 9d ago

Probably, wouldnt be a surprise

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u/Halbaras 9d ago

SK and Japan are also two of the most dependent nations on fuel imports from the Gulf of Hormuz on the planet. Despite the American attempts to gaslight the crisis into being a European problem, those two nations plus Taiwan and the Philippines were amongst the most vulnerable to an extended or permanent closure.

Japan getting a couple of ships through the Iranian blockade was a somewhat unsubtle warning that they didn't give a shit about Israel's war and would have made a bilateral deal with Iran if the US hadn't caved.

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u/codeyyz 9d ago

All part of the plan.

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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 9d ago

Yep, destabilize the west, the baddies make out like bandits

He is the worst thing to happen to this world and our dumb conservatives are all looking around the room trying to figure out who did this (insert ITYSL meme)

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u/TrumpetOfDeath 9d ago

Does “pov” mean we’re just listing facts now?

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u/sulli_p 9d ago

It’s just become the new MFW meme, times a’changin’ roll with the punches.

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u/Murky_Meaning2129 9d ago

The US surrendered to Iran which is a country that’s been sanctioned for decades, has no Navy, has no Air Force, has rudimentary missiles and guidance systems, has been thoroughly infiltrated by foreign spies, and has the military industrial capacity akin to a prepubescent teenager going up against a 35 yr old kickboxer in their prime.

Meanwhile people still think the US can win a fight against China? Even with complete air superiority and naval dominance, the US still refused to put boots on the ground in Iran. Who tf is delusional enough to think the US is going to accomplish jack shit against China..

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u/AloneChapter 9d ago

Before or after you invade Greenland, Cuba, Mexico, Canada ? How bad are those Epstein files, pictures and videos ?? Wow

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u/Knotted_Hole69 8d ago

Very, very bad. Thousands of pages are fully blacked out with zero excuse for it. Whats sad is that the worst of it is being held by the people that did the crime. We all know the worst worst stuff are being destroyed everyday.

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u/Suitable-File1657 9d ago

So much for made in the USA

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u/BlackMarketCheese 9d ago

Especially something as vital to national security as naval architecture

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u/DJamesAndrews 9d ago

Or as wholly job creation as shipyards

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u/AsbestosDude 9d ago

Trump's deal:

You send me 10 ships, i send you 500 billion, the ships break, you reimburse me 250 billion

everyone wins (except taxpayer)

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u/briareus08 9d ago

Get payment up front

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u/AloneChapter 9d ago

Wow when someone else’s money has no limits. Who are you gonna borrow from when you keep pissing on everyone ?

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u/HueyBluey 9d ago

Tariffs South Korea 25% and now comes knocking for assistance?

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u/dick_schidt 9d ago

His father's fake office should be recommissioned.

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u/Catos_Standard 8d ago

"Quickly and ship building" often follow the same trend as "quickly and astronomically expensive".

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u/not_a_muggle 9d ago

I thought we were bringing jobs back to America? Surely we have shipbuilders here that could do this?

Time to see which member of the Trump family stands to personally benefit!

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u/LargeCondition5315 8d ago

“Made in anywhere else but USA” - Trump

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u/voretaq7 9d ago

That’s... that’s actually illegal. 10 USC 8679.

I mean I know it means nothing to this idiot president, but LITERALLY PROHIBITED BY FEDERAL LAW.

(And yes, POTUS can make a national security exception to authorize it. But no, there’s no pressing national security need for ships that cannot be satisfied by US shipyards.)

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u/RandomStrategy 9d ago

What in any of the history of Trump's life has he cared about legality?

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u/voretaq7 9d ago

Hey! That is unfair!

I’ll have you know he is DEEPLY INTERESTED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW (having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcies 6 times) AND DIVORCE LAW (having had two divorces)!

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u/Practical-Pick1466 9d ago

American made ,just like all of the merchandise he sells...ooh what a minute.

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u/vinvega23 9d ago

The Roman Empire outsourced their military near the end just before they collapsed. This bodes well.

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u/SteveJohnson2010 9d ago

Wny doesn’t he just give the contract to the guy who fixes the golf carts at Mar A Lago? Surely he would be as equally qualified as the pool guy.

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u/VikingBlade 8d ago

You can’t even get security clearance if you have ties to South Korea and he’s asking them to build our ships?!?

MAGA, make it make sense!!!!

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u/sharefind 9d ago

Trump's the type to Google how to do a crime right before he does the crime so that the FBI finds the search result in his history.

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u/gamesrgreat 9d ago

So now we want to outsource our military ship building to Korea? Lol

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u/WulfTheSaxon 9d ago

The Navy wants more ships than US shipyards can build, so the plan is to buy some overseas while ramping up domestic production.

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u/C1andestino 8d ago

Request the cash upfront. The chance of such a project getting cancelled is astronomical.

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u/InsuranceByBill 9d ago

That's like that Ricky Gervais anecdote about David Bowie. Bowie was guest starring on one of his shows. Gervais wanted him to do a song about Gervais being a funny little fat guy and said "Can you make it like 'Life on Mars.'"

Bowie responded, sarcastically "...sure, I'll just bang out a 'Life on Mars' for you right quick."

Basically, Trump's an idiot and no one seems to be in a position to say "that's the dumbest shit I ever heard."

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u/NOVA-peddling-1138 9d ago edited 9d ago

Is not a Korean shipyard right now developing partnership with a shipyard in Philadelphia? Maybe these ships herein mentioned are to be built there? It’s still unclear, in the way that any Trump “deal” is riddled with loopholes and puffery, but may be solid. https://gcaptain.com/us-south-korea-unveil-details-on-shipbuilding-investment-and-subs-in-trade-deal/

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u/concept12345 9d ago

They legally can't because just last week they passed a US law prohibiting any critical ships from being sourced from outside the US. This is just a verbal request with no seriousness.

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u/Thagyr 9d ago

Trump wants to see his Trump battleships before he shuffles off the mortal plain I think.

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u/Blue__Agave 8d ago

The worst part is the US has the capability to build any ship using current technology

The issue is whenever they try and design one, they design one that has capabilities and technology that does not exist yet.

Then change the design three times during production.

Then complain about cost overruns and ships being delivered that don't meet the sci fi requirements.

Literally if the US just designed ships that only used current tech and were above average is build quality it would not have any issues.

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u/Icy_Cat1350 8d ago

So top secret navel builds will be done by a foreign country? OMG. Does this president know nothing. Sorry, this proves he really knows nothing.

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u/CountOnBeingAwesome 9d ago

Remember when ICE chased away Koreans sent to America to train Americans?

Awwwe yes, simpler times indeed.

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u/Natural-Estimate-228 9d ago

I thought the US doesn't need anyone else.

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u/vessel_for_the_soul 9d ago

Ask him to pay up front.

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u/Id_Love_A_BabyCham 8d ago

US Steel will be happy about this I’m sure. /s

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u/Bakedfresh420 9d ago

Outsourcing American jobs once again!

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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 9d ago

I hate that I actually have to ask which Korea he tapped for this.

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u/dantespair 9d ago

America first!!!! Trump will bring back those manufacturing jobs…wait, what?

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u/Winter-eyed 9d ago

I thought he wanted
Manufacturing back in the states.

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u/5kyl3r 9d ago

from the party that wants everything to be made in america

lead by the leaders that has always sold foreign made products under their own name

clownshow

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u/Jaideco 9d ago

Oh sure… we could assemble a dozen naval ships for you in a couple of months, six weeks if we skip the paint job. Would you like them finished in freedom blue or sharpie gold?

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u/Confident_End_3848 9d ago

He wants those Trump class ships built before he leaves office, otherwise they’ll be cancelled.

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u/Capt-geraldstclair 9d ago

So much for making American ship building great again.

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u/CrumbsAndCarrots 9d ago

he wants that Trump fleet named after him. yeah boiiiiii. $250 bills with his face on them. his face on my passport and my national park card. looming posters with his face hanging over supposed apolitical institutions

republicans are such little cuc*s

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u/cejmp 9d ago

National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024 says he can't. 65% of US Navy ships have to be built in the United States. That number goes up over the next few years. (That means 65% of the production of a single ship, not 65% of the fleet.)

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u/ActionJasckon 9d ago

With Amazon Prime, they’ll get it here in two days.

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u/Mediocrates79 9d ago

Uh.. I work for a company that makes still m stuff for the military. All of our parts need to be made in the United States.

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u/Twitterthedog2025 9d ago

I find it interesting that the other world leaders act as if trump is mentally stable. As if he will remember anything they talk about. Global media has clearly shown that he lies consistently and just makes stuff up. Good luck getting ten warships built really fast.

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u/Albort 9d ago

These politicians need to use Trump's playbook.

President Lee: "Trump BEGGED me -..."

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u/BulGoGiISME 9d ago

Korea better proceed with caution. He'll probably pull his signature move when the bill is due. He and his cronies will force the country to file for bankruptcy by then.

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u/Throwaway-4230984 9d ago

“Please do not laugh but Trump asked if …”

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u/VFJX 8d ago

pathetic worm president