Claims extracted
21
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
10%
2 of 21 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans strongly left
expected in commentary, which argues a position · beta estimate
Publisher signals
not measured
these signals count newsroom corrections;
Commentary has none to count
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Of the many ridiculous, counterproductive, and outright harmful things that Donald Trump has done, his effort to create a “Golden Fleet” of “Trump-class” battleships is far from the worst offense.
asserted
effort → do → offense
But it is absolutely typical of the personalistic and processless state into which American national security decision making has fallen in his second term.
asserted
making → fall → term
The United States has not commissioned a new battleship since it launched the USS Missouri in 1944.
asserted
it → commission → 1944
There are good reasons for this: in an age of naval aviation and missiles, battleships become huge floating targets liable to be sunk way before any of their weapons can be put to use.
asserted
any → be → use
Battleships had already been made obsolete by aircraft carriers during the Second World War, and since then have been used for shore bombardment when facing an enemy like Iraq that didn’t have the means of fighting back.
asserted
that → make → means
They would be worse than useless in a war with China or even Iran, both of which field huge numbers of ballistic and cruise missiles that could easily strike such big targets.
uncertain
that → field → targets
Trump evidently decided on his own to direct the Navy to build new battleships based on his having watched the black-and-white television series Victory at Sea when he was young.
asserted
he → decide → Sea
He bemoaned the fact that the United States was building smaller ships and boasted that his planned battleships would be “the fastest, the biggest, and by far—100 times—more powerful.”
asserted
battleships → bemoan → times
I remember watching and loving Victory at Sea when I was a child growing up in the late 1950s.
asserted
I → remember → 1950s
But I recognize that the world has moved on since then.
asserted
world → recognize → ?
: making America great again consists, in so many domains, of reproducing the world the way he remembers it when he was a young man, when the United States was an industrial powerhouse and women and racial minorities weren’t so prominent in the workplace.
asserted
women → make → workplace
His project fully reflects the president’s vanity: ship classes are usually named after the lead ship (in this case a planned USS Defiant); Trump wants them named after himself, and to have the moniker “Golden” attached to the name of the fleet like Theodore Roosevelt’s “Great White Fleet.”
asserted
moniker → reflect → Fleet
The major cost of this misconceived initiative will divert planning and design funds already appropriated away from ships the Navy really wants to build.
asserted
Navy → divert → ships
Fortunately, it is very unlikely that any of these ships will ever be built.
asserted
any → build → ships
Trump has no way of authorizing the many billions of dollars this fleet would cost, and there doesn’t seem to be any enthusiasm for the project either in Congress or the Navy apart from campaign donors like former Navy Secretary John Phelan.
asserted
fleet → have → Phelan
Phelan himself was apparently pushed out of his post because he told Trump that the new ships couldn’t be completed during the president’s second term, and that they might have to be constructed in foreign shipyards.
uncertain
they → push → shipyards
There is no one in the administration capable of telling the president that building new battleships is a stupid idea, and no inhibition on Trump’s part in asserting expertise in an area he knows less than nothing about.
asserted
he → be → nothing
The adolescent Trump watching Victory at Sea is now an 80-year-old adolescent directing the world’s most powerful country.
asserted
Trump → watch → country
National security decision-making, absent regular process and careful vetting, risks getting the United States into conflicts with huge unanticipated consequences.
asserted
making → risk → consequences
Oh wait—maybe that’s happened already.
asserted
that → wait → ?
He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column, carried forward from American Purpose, at Persuasion.
asserted
He → carry → Persuasion
The Aporia
