XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism, alt.politics.immigration   
   XPost: alt.politics.trump   
   From: j63840576@gmail.com   
      
   "New frigate has "zero tactical use" and that officials appear to be   
   "focused on the president's visual that a battleship is a cool-looking   
   ship. "   
      
   Trump names battleship class after himself, advancing his personalization   
   crusade like an insane Roman Emperor.   
      
   Sticking his name on everything is especially difficult to defend as it so   
   plainly does little to meet the nation's needs.  He says "Fuck taxpayers,   
   it's money spent on my fragile ego"   
   Dec. 23, 2025, 9:01 AM EST   
   By   
   Steve Benen   
      
   It's hardly a secret that Donald Trump desperately wants to apply his name   
   to things, but the president cares nearly as much about adding the word   
   "gold" to assorted labels. Just over the course of the last year, for   
   example, we've seen him emphasize everything from "Gold Cards" to a "Golden   
   Dome" to the nation's "golden age" (never mind the shiny curlicues he's   
   slapped up all over the Oval Office).   
      
   Once in a great while, though, the Republican finds a way to check both   
   boxes simultaneously. My MS NOW colleague Erum Salam reported:   
      
   The United States will build new 'Trump-class' battleships as part of a   
   'Golden Fleet, ' President Donald Trump announced Monday. [... ]   
      
   'They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful   
   than any battleship ever built, ' Trump said at a news conference at his   
   Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete   
   Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.   
      
   So, on the one hand, we're talking about a fleet that joins the president's   
   "golden" list while, on the other, Trump is also naming a class of   
   battleships after himself. The White House promoted illustrations of the   
   unbuilt ships featuring an emblem that centers Trump with a raised fist — a   
   detail that reinforces concerns that this is less about national security   
   and more about self-aggrandizement and self-glorification on the part of   
   the president.   
      
   For those keeping score, Trump and his allies have now applied his name to   
   the Kennedy Center and the Institute for Peace, unveiled a commemorative   
   legal-tender coin that that will feature his face on both sides, and   
   launched "Trump Gold Cards" and "Trump Accounts. " By some accounts, the   
   president wants the upcoming White House ballroom to be named after him,   
   too.   
      
   But wait, there's more. Trump wants a football stadium in the nation's   
   capital to be named after him; the nation's next-generation fighter jet   
   will have an F-47 designation in honor of him (Trump is the nation's 47th   
   president); and training for incoming ICE agents was reduced from 50 days   
   to 47 days for the same reason.   
      
   We are witnessing the personalization of the American government in real   
   time, and it's advancing at ridiculous speeds (albeit in ridiculous   
   directions).   
      
   Trump's 'Department of War' rebrand could be outrageously expensive   
      
      
   But this latest addition to the pattern is especially difficult to defend   
   because it so plainly does not meet the nation's needs.   
      
   Mark Montgomery, a former rear admiral who is senior director at the   
   Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Wall Street Journal that   
   the new "Golden Fleet" plan, with ships costing at least $5 billion each,   
   is "exactly what we don't need. "   
      
   Montgomery said the new frigate has "zero tactical use" and that officials   
   appear to be "focused on the president's visual that a battleship is a   
   cool-looking ship. "   
      
   This isn't how a global superpower is supposed to function. The   
   administration's plan is moving forward anyway.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)