LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The U.S. Navy will begin building new warships. President Trump announced he'll name those ships after himself.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Navy's taxpayer-funded tribute to Trump is expected to cost billions of dollars per ship. Trump announced his plan for the U.S. Navy to honor him during a rambling press event as top aides stood by.
FADEL: NPR national security correspondent Quil Lawrence is here to break this down. Good morning, Quil.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So why was the president talking about shipbuilding in the first place?
LAWRENCE: I mean, there's a general consensus that the U.S. has lost its ability to build ships quickly, if at all. So this announcement about ramping up production has kind of been anticipated. But Trump talked quite lyrically about this new class of battleship that would have guns and missiles and high-powered lasers. There were artist renderings that were shooting lasers. He mentioned a sea-launched nuclear missile capability, and he said they'd be a hundred times more powerful than previous ships. And he said they would be built with robots, but also with American workers. The president said he would start by building two of these battleships and then ramp up to 10. And then he said there would be 20 or maybe 25 - didn't give a real time frame. And as, you know, is his habit, he mentioned a lot of different numbers as his secretary of defense and secretary of state, secretary of the Navy stood by for this hourlong press event.
FADEL: OK. So a lot of big claims there about lasers and being so powerful. When we first heard of yesterday's press event, people expected some announcement about the U.S. pressure campaign against Venezuela. Did that come up at all?
LAWRENCE: Yeah. A reporter asked if U.S. sanctions and military action have been about forcing Maduro out. And here's what Trump said.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have a massive armada formed, the biggest we've ever had and by far the biggest we've ever had in South America. He can do whatever he wants. It's all right, whatever he wants to do. If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it'll be the last time he's ever able to play tough.
LAWRENCE: Trump didn't answer when the journalist asked what his endgame was, what happens if Maduro does fall. And I have to say it was reminiscent of moments 20-some years ago when people were asking what the endgame plan was for Iraq post invasion.
FADEL: Right.
LAWRENCE: But Trump also defended the lethal attacks on these small boats the U.S. says are carrying drugs. We're now at over two dozen of those strikes. They've killed over a hundred people. There was another one announced just last night - killed one more person. And now we're talking about bigger boats, not the battleships, but massive oil tankers that the U.S. Coast Guard has started seizing.
FADEL: Yeah. And on that note, what about the third oil tanker we've been hearing about, Quil, the one that the Coast Guard is chasing?
LAWRENCE: Yeah. Already twice this month, the U.S. has boarded and seized a tanker. One's now docked in Texas. And one of the tankers was on the list of sanctioned ships. The other wasn't. So it's not clear what the legal framework is for taking them. And now there's this third possibility of, well, what if a ship refuses to be boarded? Do you blow that up as well? What exactly are the rules of engagement here? Do you kill the crew? We're really in uncharted territory. But the president wasn't really focused on those details or really focused on Venezuela. Over the hour, he made threats toward the president of Colombia. He was dismissive but talked at length about the Epstein files. He talked about Obamacare subsidies, health care subsidies. And he revived his assertion that the U.S. needs to take over Greenland for national security reasons.
FADEL: NPR's Quil Lawrence. Thank you, Quil.
LAWRENCE: My pleasure, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR鈥檚 programming is the audio record.
