In February, President Trump released his budget. Among the proposals: decommissioning the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman before its scheduled repairs and refueling in 2024. On Wednesday, Trump changed his mind, tweeting that he was “overriding” the decommissioning that he had proposed.
I am overriding the Decommission Order of the magnificent aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, built in 1998 (fairly new), and considered one of the largest and finest in the world. It will be updated at a fraction of the cost of a new one (which also are being built)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2019
There are plenty of reasonable arguments on both sides of the issue. For example, refueling and repairing the Truman keeps the U.S. carrier fleet at 11 and the repairs keep up industrial capabilities critical to maintaining readiness and building future ships.
On the other hand, as acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and other Pentagon officials have argued since the budget proposal was released, forgoing repairs and refueling would save as much as $30 billion over the coming decades. That money could then be directed to developing new technology and upgrading other capabilities to better meet the changing needs of the military.
As Adm. John Richardson explained earlier this week, the decision to forgo repairs on the Truman would keep the Navy flexible as new threats emerge: “One thing that characterizes success and failure, I think, is our ability to just move.” Adding, “The most mortal sin we can have right now is to stay stable or stagnant.”
But whatever you think of arguments for or against keeping the Truman active, it’s clear that if Trump had a thoughtful reconsideration, the time to make that decision was before he sent his people to Washington to defend his budget.
His Tuesday tweet, coming after weeks of Defense officials championing the proposal, undermines his own top military officials and his own budget. That’s not a great way to win the congressional support he needs to pass the funding bill.
And because Congress isn’t likely to find even more billions to hand over to the Pentagon, especially after Trump administration ploys to take a slice of the military budget for his border wall, that will also mean the White House has effectively picked funneling billions into an aircraft carrier rather than focusing on other technology better able to meet the rising threats posed by China and Russia.
In the end, spending those billions to keep the Truman when the Navy has decided that money would be better spent elsewhere undermines national security and future preparedness for an inability to let go of past plans and existing operations.
That’s exactly what Richardson was warning against.
