President Donald Trump has announced plans to expand the U.S. military, particularly the Navy, and the Gulf Coast, as well as Alabama itself, is expected to play a major role in building new ships.
The Trump administration has pitched a “Golden Fleet” to protect U.S. interests in a changing world. Part of that fleet, according to administration officials, would be built in Mobile, Alabama, and nearby Pascagoula, Mississippi.
On Wednesday, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan visited Mobile, touring industrial sites tied to shipbuilding and meeting with local stakeholders.
He also sat down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who hosted Special Report from the USS Battleship Alabama at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Baier interviewed Phelan and filmed a walking segment around parts of Battleship Memorial Park.
Trump has proposed a buildup of 50% in the U.S. military and has floated the figure of a $1.5 trillion boost.
“I am proud to see the Secretary of the Navy in front of the USS Alabama talking about President Trump’s Golden Fleet of carriers, destroyers, submarines, and other new concepts,” U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) said Wednesday night.
“There is no better place to discuss this historic mission to bring America back to peak warfighting strength than Alabama. From Huntsville to Mobile, Alabama continues to prove that its workforce and service men and women are poised to build, sustain, and defend the most capable fighting forces the world has ever known.”
Moore is also a candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat left open by outgoing U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn)
The full video of the interview with Secretary Phelan as they broadcast beside the USS Alabama is available on here Fox News.
The visit comes during heightened global tensions and ongoing debate in Washington over shipbuilding capacity, readiness, and the pace of modernization.
Baier also visited Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, one of the nation’s major naval shipbuilders. Hundreds of Alabama residents make the commute to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to work at Ingalls.
To close Wednesday’s broadcast, Baier highlighted another Battleship Memorial Park centerpiece: the USS Drum, the oldest American submarine on public display. Baier recounted the submarine’s World War II service, its crew, and a well-known story involving the crew’s dog, Stateside, along with a note that Walt Disney drew the submarine’s insignia artwork held in the park’s archives.
Baier’s Alabama broadcast marked the first in a series of reports from locations tied to the proposed military buildup. It continues Thursday at 5 p.m. on Fox News.
Jim Zig Zeigler is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News. His beat includes the positive and colorful about Alabama – her people, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former State Auditor and Public Service Commissioner. You can reach him at [email protected].
