Trump’s ‘golden fleet’ battleships and missile dome are on life support after midterm losses

The future of President Donald Trump’s ambitious plans to build a “Golden Fleet” of nuclear battleships and a $1.2 trillion golden dome defense system could be in jeopardy under a Democratic Congress following the Republican wipeout in the midterm elections.The Trump administration has put forward a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027, yet to be approved by Congress. Democrats who perceive the president’s defense programs as Trump “vanity projects” are poised to take control of key Congressional committees and could axe or significantly scale back the projects.Trump unveiled his plans to build a fleet of battleships in December 2025, touting them as “100 times the force” of past vessels. The first 15 ships, which Trump insisted should be nuclear-powered, could cost about $275 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith, a Democrat who is seeking to become chairman in January, signaled a change of course was likely coming in a leaked letter to Democratic colleagues last week. “We should be investing in more low-cost munitions, uncrewed systems, and drone and missile defense capabilities,” Smith wrote in the letter. “We need an appropriate mix of high-end survivable systems and lower-cost attritable capabilities, not a fleet of nuclear-powered battleships as proposed by the President.”President Donald Trump’s ambitious plans to build a ‘Golden Fleet’ of nuclear battleships and a $185 billion golden dome defense system could be in jeopardy after the results of the midterms (AFP/Getty)Smith previously said the program was “an ill-conceived vanity project.”Military experts also weighed in on the fate of the project. “The Trump battleship is likely doomed both because of the branding and because the program is extremely expensive and weakly justified,” retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel Mark Cancian told TWZ. Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, added that he believed Democrats “will make a broad effort to remove Trump branding from Washington.”Retired U.S. Navy rear admiral Mark Montgomery, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, added that the program “was in stormy seas before the midterm elections, because it was premised on a strategy that ran counter to a decade-long bipartisan effort to distribute maritime lethality.”Smith’s letter did not directly mention Trump’s plans for a Golden Dome — reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s stalled 1980s “Star Wars” initiative — that would shield the nation using a network of space-based sensors and interceptors, but experts identified it as another project that could be targeted by a Democrat-led Congress. Trump’s plans for a Golden Dome would shield the nation using a network of space-based sensors and interceptors and cost in the region of $1.2 trillion over a 20-year period (Getty)In May, the CBO estimated it could cost $1.2 trillion over a 20 year period.Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, who oversees the initiative, warned in August that the project was already at risk due to issues with funding approval in Congress, TWZ reported.“I will tell you that if they don’t figure it out, there is no Golden Dome because there is no funding,” he said.The White House previously said the dome “will utilize next-generation technology to defend Americans against the evolving threat landscape.”In response to the fate of defense programs under a Democrat-controlled Congress, deputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly said that Trump “will work with anyone to protect the United States from threats abroad.” “If Democrats oppose these critical projects, they are playing politics at the expense of our national security,” Kelly added.