President Trump will hit the road on Thursday to deliver a speech aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford in Newport News, Va., less than 48 hours after he delivers his first address to a joint session of Congress.
The president is slated to tour the Newport News Shipbuilding yard where the soon-to-be commissioned aircraft carrier is docked. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that Trump will meet with shipbuilders and military personnel at the shipyard before speaking to a larger audience at a rally aboard the carrier.
Much of Trump’s speech will focus on his upcoming budget, which is set to include a 10 percent increase in defense spending over budget caps and $54 billion in cuts to most federal agencies. Trump has repeatedly promised to build up the U.S. military and is said to be planning the largest fleet expansion since the Cold War.
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly called for building the Navy to a 350-ship fleet, up from 274 ships today. The Navy’s own updated fleet assessment released last year calls for a 355-ship Navy to better counter threats from Russia and China.
Huntington Ingalls Industries, which owns Newport News Shipbuilding, is the only shipyard that builds aircraft carriers and one of only two to build nuclear-powered submarines. It also builds a number of other smaller surface ships, such as Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and San Antonio class amphibious ships, and has built more than 70 percent of the Navy’s fleet of warships, according to its website.
When the Navy released its new force plan in December, a Huntington Ingalls Industries spokeswoman said the company “stands ready to support our customers’ shipbuilding requirements.”
Trump has made defense industry a key priority since taking office, holding personal meetings with the CEOs of both Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which make the F-35 and F/A-18 Super Hornet, respectively. He previously held an event at a Boeing factory in South Carolina this month, where he announced the administration is “looking seriously at a big order” of Super Hornets.
The president is also slated to visit Florida over the weekend, during which he will attend a series of fundraisers and participate in a roundtable on school choice at a Catholic school in Orlando.
