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.”

  • moldy_rice@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com
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    11 hours ago

    Remember folks: this is how he makes money.

    He’s not stupid. He’s using his power to pour more taxpayer dollars into private companies owned by him and his buddies. This is what theft and abuse of power looks like.

  • xenomor@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    I’m not a fan of Kelly, but “ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit” is a good line.

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        13 hours ago

        That would be enough. He’s also a proud Zionist, which should be enough to exclude anyone from polite society, but that’s half the fucking population that needs their moral compass replaced.

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    1 day 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.

    • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
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      10 hours 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.

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          18 minutes ago

          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?

          • BuckFutter@timeyak.com
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            4 minutes ago

            Yah pretty much already the worst in my mind. So many unprecedented things have happened…just wild.

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      24 hours ago

      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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        24 hours 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.

    • NekoKoneko@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      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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        21 hours ago

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

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          15 minutes 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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            5 minutes 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 😂

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    20 hours ago

    Remember, this president suggested injecting bleach to cure COVID…he should have been severely punished for encouraging ppl to kill themselves.

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          8 hours ago

          Are y’all still going on about this? The (to oversimplify) racists voted for their racist candidate; the decent people didn’t get a decent candidate to vote for so they voted less. The idea that either of them being women had anything to do with it is unmitigated bullshit.

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    24 hours ago

    They could just show him an AI generated video of an aircraft carrier with huge steam plumes every time a jet launches. They could get away with it.

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    24 hours ago

    I can already see the malicious compliance gears in motion:

    “Yes, sir!”
    The Naval CNO creates a project, codename “Ouroboros”. With the stated goal of replacing EMALS with steam. The project is assigned to whichever Colonel is on the shit list who is tasked with the feasibility study and creating the RFI.

    3 years later

    The whole thing is shit-canned by the next President.

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    21 hours ago

    So remind me why a retard with no knowledge about anything, has any say about anything? Let experts be experts, and pedo retards die in their piss.

      • TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com
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        18 hours ago

        unfortunately, one of his brain dead sons, I forget which, actually said something to that effect, that “the president is the smartest person in the room” (regarding hiring/appointing advisors, as I recall. He basically said no one could contradict the president–about anything).

        I’m sure we all remember Deborah Birx’s pained expression when he was spouting that bullshit about bleach during the pandemic. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/26/birx-trump-disinfectant-coronavirus-00027776

        • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          That’s actually a very telling statement: If nobody can tell you you’re wrong, that means you’re right - which means if you tell me I’m wrong and I force you to shut up, it means I become right.

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      1 day ago

      Ironic to see ICP being mentioned today, was just talking about them from when I listened to them in the 90’s. They seem to have more common sense than the clown mentioned above.

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        7 hours ago

        Plus a lot more self awareness and a seemingly genuine desire to be better, if the interviews I’ve read of late are even halfway truthful.

        “Younger me was a fool and a sheep, and I won’t hide from that.” In essence. Credit where it’s due.

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          50 minutes ago

          yah I had read the same and was genuinely surprised to hear it. Based upon their music you wouldn’t think so, but people find all types of creative ways to express their emotions and feelings, etc…

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      16 hours ago

      He’s not trying to bankrupt the country. He’s trying to rob it blind. Bankruptcy is just a by-product. It’s how he does business.

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      23 hours ago

      I can’t say for certain that he’s a Russian agent, but it is concerning how many things he does coincide with what a Russian agent would do.

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      21 hours ago

      Oh nah, if this is anything, it’s another push to expand the military budget in ANOTHER bid to privatize the military, something he and his have been on for years.