Posted on March 10, 2025
President Trump is ship obsessed.
- He’s texting about rust into the wee hours of the morning, according to John Phelan, his pick to be Navy secretary.
- And he’s sprung the idea of a White House shipbuilding office, spanning both commercial and military sectors.
Why it matters: Amid years of American atrophy — shuttered shipyards, workforce woes accelerated by the pandemic, abandoned guns and schedule overruns — China has cornered the market.
- Beijing’s capacity is hundreds of times larger than Washington’s by some estimates.
- That spells trouble in the Indo-Pacific, a watery region where military leaders and Beltway diviners believe a war over Taiwan could erupt as soon as 2027.
Driving the news: Trump in a combative nationwide address said he would “resurrect the American shipbuilding industry.”
- “We used it to make so many ships,” he said. “We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon.”
- But details on the office — exactly how it would work and how far it would reach — are scarce. The president did mention tax incentives.
By the numbers: The Navy would need to spend tens of billions of dollars a year for three decades to satisfy its expansion goals, according to a roundup from the Congressional Budget Office.
- The service tallied 296 battle force ships (aircraft carriers, submarines, surface combatants, amphibious ships, and logistics and support ships) in December.
- It’s eyeing 381.
- That doesn’t include the many unmanned assets key to the hybrid fleet envisioned by former chiefs of naval operations Adms. Lisa Franchetti and Michael Gilday.
Merchant ships built by country as a share of global gross tonnage, 2014 to 2023
Flashback: The U.S. built thousands of cargo ships during World Wars I and II, according to a 2023 congressional report.
- “In the 1970s, U.S. shipyards were building about 5% of the world’s tonnage, equating to 15-25 new ships per year.”
- “In the 1980s, this fell to around five ships per year, which is the current rate of U.S. shipbuilding.”
What they’re saying: The shipbuilding office “can only help,” Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday at a Ronald Reagan Institute event. “How it will work, I do not know.”
- “We are producing 1.2 attack submarines a year. We need to produce 2.7, or we need to produce almost three, a year,” he added. “The way to get started doing it is to say we’re going to get started.”
Support also rolled in from industry.
- Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, said companies are “ready to answer the call to design and build America’s commercial and military fleets.”
- Fincantieri in a statement to Axios said it welcomed the creation of the office, “which will empower us to further expand the U.S. industrial base by creating hundreds of additional jobs in the” immediate term.
What’s next: Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis, both Utah Republicans, want the option to build warships and major components overseas, in NATO countries and friendly Indo-Pacific areas (think Japan or South Korea).
