One of the first big hints came into view last September. For reasons that never made any sense, the Pentagon ordered roughly 800 generals and admirals to come from around the world to Virginia on short notice to hear President Donald Trump share some thoughts with the officers.
“I’m not a fan of some of the ships you do,” the president said in apparent seriousness. “I’m a very aesthetic person, and I don’t like some of the ships you’re doing, aesthetically.”
It was not an offhand comment. Two months later, during a Thanksgiving call with service members, the Republican again said, in reference to military ships, “I’m a looks person. I wanted the hull to be perfect. You know, I sort of redesigned the hull a little bit, the hulls.”
Shortly before Christmas, Trump again said that he’d be directly involved in military ship design, “because I’m a very aesthetic person.” In February, the president spoke at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and once again insisted that he only wants “gorgeous” ships, which is why he “helped design” the latest U.S. battleships.
This recent history came to mind reading the latest reporting from The Washington Post:
The U.S. Navy is considering a major redesign of its new aircraft carriers to better match President Donald Trump’s preferred aesthetic for the warships, according to seven current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The service is evaluating the feasibility of moving the multistory tower that acts as the carrier’s command center farther forward, toward the middle of the ship, to resemble older vessels, the officials said. The review, which has not been previously reported, is in response to Trump’s concerns about the “look” of the new Ford-class ships, where the tower is near the rear, these people said.
The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, made clear there’s no practical or substantive reason to make such a change, which would cost billions of dollars to implement and be incredibly disruptive. (The Pentagon and the Navy referred the Post’s requests for comment to the White House, which did answer the newspaper’s questions.)
This comes on the heels of Trump directing the Navy to replace their systems for launching jet fighters from aircraft carriers, swapping out electromagnetic catapult systems for steam catapults — a change Navy officials do not want to make — because the president claims he spoke to a sailor nearly a decade ago who had positive things to say about steam catapults.
In case this isn’t obvious, the incumbent president has literally no background in military ship design or in engineering. But he’s the commander in chief of the armed forces; he has “aesthetic” problems with some of the Navy’s vessels; he’s making his preferences clear — and there’s apparently no one in the chain of command who can take the Republican aside and say, “Mr. President, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
But at the heart of the problem is a familiar dynamic: Trump doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.
To the contrary, the president has convinced himself he’s the world’s foremost expert on countless subjects. Just two weeks ago, he boasted, “I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.” He’s also claimed to be among the planet’s most authoritative sources on construction, tariffs, automation, firearms, healthcare policy, drone technology, agriculture and the federal judiciary, among several other things.
It’s easy to laugh at the absurdity of an ignorant man expressing confidence in his unrivaled knowledge (the Dunning-Kruger effect comes to mind), but alongside Trump’s cringeworthy arrogance is a profound sense of entitlement. He’s comfortable trying his hand at Navy ship design and choosing battleship catapult systems precisely because the president is convinced of his own polymathic brilliance.
The result is a Navy that’s trying to keep up with the whims of an easily confused politician with a background in real estate and television game show hosting. No good can come of this.
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