General Atomics, the company that builds the electromagnetic aircraft launch system for the Ford-class carriers, said Trump’s decision to revert to steam “warrants careful reconsideration”. The company told the Journal its work on the new ship is nearly 50% complete and “changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks”.

Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and a former astronaut, was more blunt in his reaction to the news.

“I’ve launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times, have a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and am a test pilot and even I wouldn’t suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems on its ships,” Kelly wrote on social media. “Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best – ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit.”

  • BuckFutter@timeyak.com
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    4 days ago

    “So I said, ‘What is this?’ ‘Sir, this is our digital catapult system’”, Trump went on. “It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said – and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers – I said, ‘What system are you going to be’– ‘Sir, we’re staying with digital.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. You[’re] going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good’.”

    A Guardian review of Trump’s public remarks shows that he has retold that story, with variations, every year since 2017.

    The President of the United States folks…just wow…smh.

    • Soulphite@reddthat.com
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      Another grift on the backs of the citizens more than likely. Nay, positively. This pedophile’s whole existence is a grift to the universe. Utter trash. It’s atoms need to be vaporized as they don’t belong.

      • quarkquasar@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        And the no-bid contract goes to:… The Carrier Steam Company, established 2026, by Donald Trump Jr.

        Totally above board, of course. Although the Chairman would be Donald Trump Sr. Which would be a conflict of interest, except the Supreme Court would decide it’s not.

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      You know he’s just making it up when everyone says “sir” to him in his stories, but that’s hardly better that this is just his version of how it should have went.

      • BuckFutter@timeyak.com
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        Exactly. Seems like there is a simple formula for this buffoonary. Sir…problem…incoherent nonsense…for every “problem” that he talks about.

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          3 days ago

          Also, in my head, I prefer versions where people talk to him and pointedly don’t use things like “sir” or “mr. president” to address him. Just call him by his first name, or better yet, “hey, DUMBASS…{proceeds to some question or comment}”

          I would so love to see that, LOL.

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            3 days ago

            Lmao right? I’m shocked that it doesn’t happen more often and also would love to see him called out for what he is. I guess they have changed up the press pool so much that its mostly pro trump gooners asking the “tough” questions now so his feelings don’t get hurt. Hey Dumbass does have a certain ring to it 😂

            • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Heck, even the ones he considers oppositional and bitches all the time about (like Kaitlan, LOL - she used to work for the Daily Caller, FFS) are way too respectful to him.

              • BuckFutter@timeyak.com
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                3 days ago

                yah he doesn’t deserve all that respect that the office of the president used to demand, once you shit yourself at the resolute desk…you should be called out as a piece of shit from that point on.

    • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      I went into this assuming it had something to do with the US running out of rare earth minerals needed for magnetic systems.

      Nope, just a weird bugbear the gameshow host won’t let go of.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          Biff is trying to really hard to cement his reputation as the worst president in American history.

          This guy is obsessed with attacking wind turbines and lifting up coal, with putting up tacky gold shit in the White House, with water pressure in showers and toilets, with the style of 100-year old military hardware (battleships), and with not understanding magnets.

          He also seemingly thinks you cannot see stealth planes?