Trump orders Navy to revert to steam catapults on carriers
Of all the things this ignorant idiot knows nothing about, pretty confident that steam catapults is one of them.
Non Scary Ghost49Trump orders army to revert to muskets and line formations.
MH38Announcing The Jr. & Eric Steam Refitting Corporation, founded last week.
Керрі Світ🇺🇦🇨🇦🇩🇰🇪🇺32Pretty sure Beavis and Butthead are now invested in steam catapults.
cavalrygreek26The reasons they stopped building steam catapults. 1. takes 500 plus men to service & upkeep steam plant & pipes. 2. Costlier to update/repair. 3. EM catapults & arresting gear = 30% more sorties with 500 less crew. 4. EM gear can launch heavier loads. 5. Steam pipes use up more space on ship.
Damian Lynch 🟧 🇦🇺 Rebellion is Mandatory during times of Tyranny25Idiocracy is going to destroy us all
POSUTtRUmp 100% parody of Piece Of Shit Ultimate Traitor22Steam? Too modern. Trebuchet the jets.
One of the Millions of Joe Kellys3Linear induction catapults are WOKE AF. OMG totally gay!!! Steam catapults are AMERICAN! They encourage big, muscular men to JOIN THE NAVY and learn a new trade or two, and lift weights down in the steamy gym with other big bare chested men.
Farmer Marv Bot 🇺🇸 🇺🇦🚜🌾2Ah but the people paying him a kick back to earn billions refitting the steam pipes do…
badwebsites2If it's bad for America, Donald's doing it.
This is absolutely ridiculous. For all its potential pitfalls, the Ford aircraft carriers are built entirely around the EMALS system, and "replacing" it with steam catapults - which require large amounts of space and personnel - is simply not a realistic option. www.wsj.com/us-news/trum...
Patrick Chovanec270Plus my understanding is that EMALS is essential to launching smaller unmanned aircraft on a regular basis without smashing them to pieces, like a steam catapult would.
Michael M42I'm guessing this is going to be a "humor and distract him" project like the weird battleships he wants to go "bang! pow! zoom!" with like toys.
Laurent Guy27It’s as if Trump is trying to undermine the effectiveness of the US Navy. 
Wake Harper24Why stop at this - rip those uranium rods out and shove sweet, clean, manly coal into those reactors
grumpybumpy123.bsky.social19He hates magnets . Remember the if you drop a magnet in water it stops working shit with the sharks ?
policy-wonk.bsky.social18He probably watched the original Top Gun again and thought the steam catapults were really cool.
Christopher Reader14This is insane and stupid, and Trump is "fixing" another problem that's not a problem so he can claim that he fixed it. Like Iran.
John Wiswell12This is what they've done.
Chris “OH NO! DISASTER! WHAT A BAD IDEA!” Dobbertean11Kind of like making the MMR vaccine three jabs again!
Matthew Buckley715 minutes after the fascists are removed from power --be it in 2 years or 20-- people who have ignored every treasonous decision the GOP made to make use weaker, poorer, and less secure are going to wake up, notice how everything is fucked, and blame whatever non-fascist is in charge for all of it.
Electric Kool-Aid Bechdel Test6🧵 How did Trump even acquire such a strong preference about steam vs. electromagnetic? It's not like he comes across as a tech nerd otherwise invested in the minutiae of this stuff. It's not like he's worked with steam catapults and would have a personal bias. How did he get to care so much? 1/5
PHL SportsNut6What an idiot, I am sure he can give you an in depth pro and con on the old steam design vs. the new one. Next, he will revive his calls to paint the ships a different color.
|-o-| The Dark Moose |-o-|6Its simple. He's a foreign asset, probably Russian. He's trying to disable our most powerful military assets. He's trying to deplete our arsenal of weapons. He's trying to destroy our military's morale. Donald Trump is a traitor against our nation. His loyalties are NOT American.
Traveler Farlander4FFS. I hope the Navy brass puts together a program to "study" how to do this ridiculous nonsense until he's out of office, however that may come to pass. (I'm in favor of "natural causes," but I'll take, "dragged out of his ballroom spider hole.")
Dani Welch4Next he'll demand that we return to the golden age of unsinkable ships. Those unsinkable ships were big, beautiful, and much more reliable.
David Woodruff3Lysenkoism, in retrospect, seems like a relatively serious attempt at evidence-based policymaking.
According to Trump-we can’t pay for SNAP benefits to feed hungry kids Or lower the cost of housing Or help people keep their health insurance But we CAN spend billions on purposeless and unwanted steam catapults for our Navy In every way Literally Morally Metaphorically #RepublicansStarveUS
VivianOfTheSierras18Barbarians are inside the gates.
HongKongDongSong8Trump understands steam and coal and none of this newfangled stuff. I bet even Whiskey Pete is wondering what the hell is next, like trebuchets and flaming tar.
Kate8He must have a buddy who does steam catapults. Grifting or money laundering. Prove me wrong.
Ishtar7I could not even imagine trying to retrofit a modern carrier with old technology......it's just more stupid shit from our stupid shit president.
WatchYourRepsTN&SC6His goal appears to be crippling our military!
Steve 🌮 🥃5Is the army going back to riding horses and firing muskets? This guy’s brain is toast. Vote all the enablers out!
I just scrolled through the @apnews.com app. Flying under the radar (sorry, pun) is this piece. I've as little interest in the aircraft carriers as most of you, but you want to read every mad paragraph of this. In sum: grandpa doesn't understand electromagnetics, so grandpa wants steam.
#Nov2026 🌊🌊 Vote for Democracy 🗳️ - ICE❌9If Trump was actively trying to destroy our nation - what would he be doing differently?? He has weakened/damaged our - government agencies - economy - trade - national security - environment - civil rights - democracy 🚨🚨
Caw Yar Bluff6Returning to steam should be reason to remove Trump for mental incompetence.
Nualaatpeace6"Steam catapults" says Trump a man with no knowledge whatsoever. Has never served, a personal shady choice. Hegseth is equally odiously ignorant. Heaven help us all.
gardengal2.bsky.social6The military should just pretend they made the changes and ignore his effing order!!!
JanemNow5Next, trump will order military ships to be powered by coal. Gotta keep moving the country backward.
N. Arkadin-Courtney4If Trump hadn't been a draft dodger he'd have knowledge in how aircraft carriers worked. This is what happens when someone like Trump thinks they're the smartest person in the room.
I don't know if anyone told him that nuclear powered carriers are powered by... electricity, but that is here nor there. Regardless, his phobias about electricity and magnets have now fused into the perfect villain, electromagnetism, and we have this thehill.com/policy/defen...
Cake or Death149This will cost billions, take ships out of service and create more issues like we currently have with the Lincoln, and will decrease performance. BTW- you will never guess the power source used to create the steam...
Maggie Marbles13People who can't make sure aircraft carriers have food should not be deciding about their technical systems.
Roland Gerritsen van der Hoop11The president of the United States, who in addition to being a serial bankrupter, a convicted criminal, a rapist, and a protector of rich perverts, is a technical expert on launch systems and is always happy to help out in these difficult decisions. Is he effing out of his effing mind?
James Endicott8The new Trump class battleship is diesel instead of nuclear because of his fear of electricity. But, just like the Trump battleship will never exist, the switch to steam catapults won't happen. Someone will cancel it before the 2040s refits.
Stephen7This is so so so stupid I can’t get over it
Tubbles6If Trump directed the Army to have each and every enlisted below the rank of Sergeant shoot themselves in the nuts would they have to follow that order? Because that's essentially what he's telling them to do here.
vena cava 🩸8critical support to donald trump for crippling the US navy, i guess
Prince Caspian6Sailors are attempting suicide jumping off our carriers and the President's chief concern, when he's not otherwise busy calling these brave men and women liars about the terrible conditions, is steampunking them out.
The Bi of Hormuz4The basis for American military procurement is the scientific understanding of the ICP.
Russell Borogove3Also, if we ever needed Honey Huan, it's now.
Dr Sarah Hendrica Bickerton 🏳️🌈2Ok so the funny thing is that outside of wind, solar, and hydro, all our electricity is stream powered. And yes that includes nuclear. Most of our historic electricity production involved thermally heating water to high temps & forcing the stream to turn a generator. Even the hope of fusion is so.
It's weird how he has a hyperfixation on steam catapults. Like, most of his obsessions revolve directly around money and power. EMALS is such a niche thing to get mad about.
Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast111The only semi-plausible thing I've seen floated is that his brain was like EMALS -> emails -> Hillary -> bad, but even that feels like a bit of a stretch.
rimidar60Steam makes lots of noise and visuals so it must be powerful whereas magnets are quiet and subtle so they must be gay and weak
bree 🇨🇦37it’s because they were a relatively newer technology in 2017 when he formulated an opinion about them, and the kinks hadn’t been worked out yet so the opinion was more reasonable at that time, but he literally never updates his opinions about anything once he’s formed them
☀️ Starshine36i really really hope we can trace this back to an off broadway play from the 80s
the autumn and the scarlet 🍁13Was the sailor who gave him the idea a big strong hunk?
Gluten-free Seitan12Magnets are gay and don't work if they get wet
Calliope19It's similar to the silly A-10 fixation and the desire for battleships, they seem manlier and cooler. That's literally it.
"cosmic enemy" "nicole"7my suspicion is that this is just the cult of the "easy solution", it makes him feel smarter than the experts to say, EMALS was having teething issues in his first term so it's now seared into his dementia-ridden brain
Timothy Choi7if he can't see it, he can't understand it and won't buy into it. You can see steam - you can't see EM fields.
Matt Okumura6Unless he’s invested in the company selling the parts or contractors doing the work. Or he’s a traitor. Or he’s senile. Or all the above. It’s the worst multiple choice question ever.
This 2018 phone call with a servicemember on Thanksgiving is, I think, the first time Trump talked about steam catapults on aircraft carriers. rollcall.com/factbase/tru...
mikeydoubled11In May 2017 he was ranting about them to Time:
Walter Spartacus Mallette 🇺🇦6I guess a coal powered fleet will be next 🙄
Not Again6I can't believe we're back to the steam catapults.
Nataliekat ❌ 👑2If it’s old-timey and less efficient, he’s all in.
boojiewaldron.bsky.social1I thought you were on vacation?
Tintin au Pays des Soviets1ok but on the plus side he can draw a clock and identify a picture of a camel.
Trump sent out a memo Thursday directing the Navy to tear out a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers and instead go back to using steam catapults, a move Navy officials have fought for years that will cost billions of dollars. breakingdefense.com/2026/08/trum...
Susan loves democracy🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈4Hmmm. Who’s going to make money from these astronomical changes?
Ann-The Constitution is a Document of Limitations & Rights 🇺🇸3What was the reasoning behind this memo? Who benefits or should I say profits?
climate refugee1The 🤥🍊🥳 is unfit for any position of power.
jandee924 🌻🕊️🦋1He can't wait until we've regressed ALLLLLLLL the way back.
Holly Brewer9It’s all just so random. He’s like a chaos machine — Enabled by Supreme Court and Congress
DavBatz7It almost appears to be a deliberate action to negatively affect war fighting capability 🤔
nīcro2Let's just start using trebuchets on the flight deck to launch planes. We're already in our crusades era, we'll just speedrun our way to the stone age.
The new mandate would cost billions of dollars and revert the Navy’s most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain. The question of the bone spur riddled “President” is WHY??? apnews.com/article/trum...
Bubba’s Gigi8Someone, him, his friends , or his family, is making money off of this idea, prove me wrong.
Bill K 🌻🐸3To disable/handcuff the most powerful weapon in our arsenal.
wildbird73.bsky.social2Appalling lack of knowledge on anything advanced. Will someone please call President Zelensky to give trump and hegseth an education on how to run a war? Bring on the drones! Stock the ammo supplies! Feed the people and give time off. Stay awake, alert and focused! Stop the vanity distractions!
Al Olmsted2One thing we can be sure of: There's money in there for Trump somewhere.
Pie Arc Squared2didn't he say wet magnets don't work? did Qatar get the contract?
Norm Cook2He's easily fooled - someone who will profit has told him it's a good idea.
Going back to steam catapults on a carrier designed for electric ones is like building a small city 50% complete with electric lighting and then deciding to redesign everything to install gas lighting instead, because someone once said they like gas lights more. www.wsj.com/us-news/trum...
edolis 🇪🇺🇮🇹2the fact that a potus with some cheap degree in economics (he seems to have got the tariff concept through, though) can order to drive technological choices speaks lengths about the level of the US decay
Jar_Times2I hope Trump would insist testing the steam catapult in person.
psymad.bsky.social1A former King of Sweeden is famous for his naval architect skill. And his taste for heavy decoration.
Aurélien Morel (pew pews en tout genre)24Moi je suis d'accord, et ils devraient aussi revenir à une marine au charbon, loin de la technologie non prouvée du pétrole.
Jimmy Two Hands (summerjimbo era)13the democrats managed to lose to this, twice
Niko Jaakkola10Still hard to fathom that US voters have chosen to elect as president a walking embodiment of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Two years, five months remaining.
Rob Blundell9Yes, yes. I'm quite happy to pay for the aircraft carrier, but we need one, very minor, tweak....
Dltd6Jfc they really want to go back to over a hundred years in time. I will never ever be able to comprehend how the US has made it come this far with the dying body and his gang of crooks in office ruining and destroying all they have.
Sturm Liouville4Why does the most lazy and most nepo baby stupid student of his business track even act like having degrees in mechanical engineering and deep understanding of the Navy? When Hitler mused about architecture, he was at least a competent drawer
Clearly now is the time to change out the catapults for steam
They can find the funding and means to replace the catapult system but won’t feed or help the service members suffering on the USS Lincoln. apnews.com/article/trum...
John Pollack3It’s all about destroying the USA. It’s what Putin wants from his puppet.
Independent Teapot2Honestly, all they have to do is stage dressing: put big stickers on some of it saying 'steam boiler' and 'steam pipe', install a gizmo that will emit vapor periodically, and just *tell* him that they changed it, and just keep the electromag they have. He's too stupid to know the difference.
Wine is my muse1They couldn't give a rats ass about those sailors. That said, the problems on that boat don't need approval by the DOD to fix. They are logistical, engineering and medical problems that command should have already dealt with. The USN has supplies, engineers and medical staff. Get them on that boat!
Trump orders Pentagon to redesign US aircraft carrier to use steam catapults to launch jets www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Jennifer Keith4What the fuck does he know about anything? Who’s whispering in his ear?
BreeDanielsWins1Why, oh why is anyone even listening to a demented child who doesn't know the first thing about aviation, engineering or science? Naval experts who actually care about our servicemembers - just nod your heads, say you changed the catapults & carry on as before. The Moron on Chief will never know.
