US President Donald Trump went off Tuesday on the aesthetics of US Navy warships, talking to a crowd of hundreds of generals and admirals about an unspecified stealthy design that he thinks is “ugly.”
The president has a long history of criticizing the appearance of American warships. He’s compared them to rival navies, commented on the designs and technology involved, and also bothered senior officials about things like rust.
During Tuesday’s summit of American military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, Trump said that he’s “not a fan” of some of the Navy’s ships.
The focus of the discussion got a lot less clear from there. “They say, ‘Oh, it’s stealth.’ I said, ‘That’s not stealth.’ An ugly ship is not necessary in order to say you’re stealth.” Trump also called himself “a very aesthetic person.”
The president didn’t specify which vessels he was speaking about. The Navy does have stealth warships though, specifically the Zumwalt-class destroyers. The ship’s tumblehome hull design is intended to reduce the ship’s radar cross-section, making it harder for adversaries to detect. The sea service has also explored stealthy designs.
Trump has made many comments about the look and function of Navy vessels in the past, and many complaints made during his first administration have continued into his second.
Mark Esper, Trump’s former defense secretary during the first administration, documented several such instances in his memoir, including Trump complaining on “multiple occasions” that Navy ships “look ugly” especially compared to Russian or Italian counterparts, which the president reportedly said looked “nicer, sleeker, like a real ship.”
Esper recalled telling the president that US warships “are built to fight and win, not win beauty contests; we prize function over form,” but that didn’t satisfy Trump.
At the end of his first term, Trump jokingly took credit for the aesthetic design of the Navy’s new frigate. “That’s a terrible-looking ship, let’s make it beautiful. It’ll cost you the same, and maybe less,” he recalled himself saying. Trump said his feedback ultimately led to the design changing, making what he called “like a yacht with missiles on it.”
And across both his terms, Trump has raised several complaints about the USS Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers. Per Esper’s book, Trump repeatedly called the first-in-class Ford “overpriced” and “broken,” focusing on its electromagnetic catapults and elevators for aircraft. He also said that the carrier’s island “looks really bad — it’s stupid,” pitching that the command center be moved toward the middle of the warship.
As Esper wrote, for Trump, “the most important thing always seemed to be about the image and ‘the look.'”
Weeks into his second term, in February 2025, the president again criticized the Ford, noting its severe cost overruns and problems with the catapults and elevators. That was less appearance, and more technology. Trump has expressed skepticism with some of the newer systems on the ship.
But looks have still come up. His Navy secretary, John Phelan, said during his confirmation hearing that same month that Trump regularly texted him about the look of Navy warships.
“I jokingly say that President Trump has texted me numerous times very late at night — sometimes after one in the morning,” he told lawmakers, adding that the texts are about “rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me, what am I doing about it?”
Trump’s speech at Tuesday’s unusual military summit trailed into a variety of different topics and rehashed previous talking points. On ships, the president brought up budgeting for more Navy ships because the US “basically doesn’t built ships anymore.”
Fixing problems with US shipbuilding, including major delays for top Navy programs and cost overruns, has been a priority for the second Trump administration and military officials, but questions remain on plans to realistically realize common talking points and revitalize the industry and work with US allies and partners to counter China, which continues to dominate shipbuilding.
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