REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump and the First Lady in Memorial Day Address to Troops Aboard the USS Wasp
NATIONAL SECURITY & DEFENSE

Issued on: May 28, 2019

Yokosuka Naval Base
Yokosuka, Japan

11:26 A.M. JST
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I would like to know — all of the folks that know exactly what I’m talking about, the catapult system — steam or electric?

Ready? Steam. (Applause.) Electric.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yeah! (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He works for the enemy. (Laughter.) He’s all right. We’ll — ooh, you might be in danger. I better be careful. (Laughter.)

No, we want to go with steam. You know, they’re always coming up with new ideas. They’re making planes so complex you can’t fly them. (Laughter.) You know that. No, it’s — I really mean it. They want to show next, next, next. And we all want innovation, but it’s too much.

But there’s never been anything like the steam catapults. And I went to the Gerald Ford, which is under construction now for a long time. They’re having a problem with their electric catapult. And I was talking to the catapult people, and they said “steam.” In the meantime, we’re spending all that money on electric, and nobody knows what it’s going to be like in bad conditions. You understand.

So I think I’m going to put an order. When we build a new aircraft carrier, we’re going to use steam. I’m going to just put out an order: We’re going to use steam. We don’t need — we don’t need that extra speed. You know, they were saying — one of the folks said, “No, the electric works faster. But, sir, we can only get the plane there every couple of minutes.” So, really, what they did was wrong.

And we make mistakes, but, generally speaking, we get it right. But when we make them, we have to correct it. So we’re going to put out an order: We want to use steam.
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