The Trump Administration announced recently that they were considering renaming the fourth Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier after Donald Trump. The ship, under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding, is not expected to be delivered until 2034, two years behind schedule, 

The Navy had announced in 2020 that the ship would be named USS Doris Miller (CVN 81), after an African American naval hero. The ship would be the first aircraft carrier named for an enlisted sailor and the first named for an African American.

In threatening to change the carrier’s name, the Trump administration was demonstrating considerable bureaucratic efficiency by combining two of the president’s favorite pastimes — erasing the history of minority Americans and women while also attaching Trump’s name or face to any bare surface, be it a building, landmark, product, or service.

Renaming the carrier allows Trump to vaingloriously stamp his own name on more property that he doesn’t own. Trump’s proclivity to name things in his honor predates his political career; however, his desire to affix his name everywhere seems to be escalating as his poll numbers drop and his dementia accelerates,

Before entering politics, Trump has plastered his name on a dizzying array of largely unsuccessful ventures, from Trump ketchup to ties, cologne, sneakers, and Bibles, as well as steaks and airlines to his scam university, and notably several casinos, which he also led into bankruptcy. unsuccessful ventures, from Trump ketchup to ties, cologne, sneakers, and Bibles, as well as steaks and airlines to his scam university, and notably several casinos, which he also led into bankruptcy.

Dorrie Miller, American Naval Hero

Doris “Dorie” Miller, an African-American Navy Messman, helped save the lives of his shipmates and valiantly fought the attacking Japanese forces. Miller, the grandson of slaves and the son of sharecroppers, enlisted in the Navy in 1939. As an African American, he trained as a messman and cook, one of the few ratings available to Black sailors.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, on December 7th, 1941. Miller was a Mess Attendant Second Class on the battleship West Virginia. Under enemy fire, Miller helped carry wounded shipmates, including the mortally wounded ship’s captain, to shelter. Despite having no weapons training, he took control of a 50mm anti-aircraft machine gun and began firing at Japanese planes attacking his ship. He kept up firing until he ran out of ammunition. When his gun fell silent, Dorie Miller is credited with shooting down at least one and possibly up to five Japanese aircraft.

On January 1, 1942, the Navy released a list of commendations for actions on December 7. Among them was a single unidentified black sailor. The Navy did not release Miller’s name for more than 6 weeks. In May of 1942, Miller was presented with the Navy Cross by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, making Miller the first black sailor to receive such an honor. Miller’s image was used for recruitment posters, and he was even recalled to the United States for a war bonds tour.

Miller proved to be an effective recruiter and was given the option of staying in the United States in that capacity He chose to return to the war. Almost two years after his valor at Pearl Harbor, Miller was killed when his ship, the escort carrier Liscome Bay, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Battle of Makin. With the loss of 702 officers and sailors, it was the deadliest sinking of a carrier in the history of the United States Navy.

Trump Erasing Black History

In the 1940s, Dorie Miller was prevented by the Navy from serving outside a ship’s galley. After Pearl Harbor, when congressmen lobbied for Miller to receive the Medal of Honor for his heroism, they were blocked by the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, who opposed Black sailors serving the United States in any combat role. Now Trump is following Knox’s example by trying to diminish Dorrie Miller’s heroic role in history.

Miller is not alone in being a target of Trump’s historical whitewashing. Trump has ordered the National Park Service to scrub information about a long list of Blacks who played significant roles in our history. These included deleting exhibits about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, as well as removing the slavery exhibit at Independence Mall in Philadelphia. 

Trump has also repeatedly attacked the Smithsonian Museum for focusing too much on “how bad slavery was” and not enough on the “brightness” of America as his administration conducts a wide-ranging review of the content in its museum exhibits.  The Trump administration has launched a full-scale attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, targeting major cultural and educational institutions, including attempts to cut funding to Harvard,  Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, and dozens of other institutions whose curricula and programs do not suit Trump’s explicitly white supremacist worldview.. Trump seems just as bothered by acknowledging Dorrie Miller’s heroism today as the Jim Crow Navy was in 1942.

Stolen Valor and the Birth of Ensign Bone Sours

Trump’s variety of “stolen valor’ is completely shameless. Whereas stolen valor is usually defined as the act of falsely claiming military service, rank, or awards to gain benefits such as money, recognition, or other advantages, Trump is not claiming military service. It is part of the pubic record that Trump has never served in the U.S. military. The closest he came was cosplaying a soldier when little Donnie was shipped off to military school after he proved to lack discipline and focus.

Trump’s time in military school was a five-year lesson in bullying. He also didn’t like to follow the rules. In fact, Trump spent so much of his time in school in detention that his classmates often called detention “a DT,” otherwise known as “a Donny Trump.”

 Donald Trump yelled at his classmates,” says Trump biographer Marc Fisher, co-author of Trump Revealed. “He pushed them around. He ruled dormitory life with an iron fist.”Trump would emerge from military school with a blueprint for leadership by force and ridicule.

When Trump left military school, he could have joined the military. Instead, he got five draft deferments. Four were for attending college. The other deferment was for bone spurs, an ailment that had not bothered him in military school. The bone spurs also healed miraculously once the deferments were approved. Rumors long suggested that the bone spurs were fiction.

Fifty years later, two daughters of a New York podiatrist say their father diagnosed President Donald Trump with bone spurs in his heels as a favor to the doctor’s landlord, Fred Trump, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The fictitious bone spurs earned Donald the nickname “Ensign Bone Spur.”

Demanding the Peace Prize with Threats and Intimidation  

Trump has little regard for those who fought and died for this country. Years  later, after being elected president, he was heard describing American soldiers who fought for their country as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’

Despite never having served in the military, Trump’s out-of-control narcissism demands that he receive regular praise for his imaginary courage and military prowess.

His recent surreal display of unabashed need by demanding a Nobel Peace Prize is a good example. Trump claimed tp deserve the award for personally ending for ending eight wars around the world. The US was involved in settlements or temporary resolutions of 6 regional conflicts around the world during his second term and two during his first. Whether Trump personally deserves credit for ending the conflicts is highly questionable. Several of the parties to these conflicts deny that Trump had any role in the settlements; in other cases, what Trump referred to as peace treaties were ceasefires, allowing pauses in fighting that would later re-erupt.

At the same time that Trump was claiming credit for making peace, and vocally demanding that he be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he was rampaging around the globe threatening our allies and praising dictators. For a man who whined incessantly about how he really deserved the Peace Prize, Trump threatened, or left open the possibility of attacking, or actually attacked 15 countries during his two terms in office, roughly one out of every 13 countries in the world- according to a CNN report.

Battleships and the Medal of Honor

Trump also ordered the Navy to design and build a fleet of new battleships. He boasted that they would be by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built.” They would, of course, be called the Trump battleships, although, untraditionally, the first battleship was to be named the Defiant, rather than the Trump.

So, if Trump is having a class of battleships named after him, why does he need a carrier bearing his name as well?  There is an excellent chance that the battleships will never be built. They would be very expensive to build and operate and are considered by many to be obsolete. The last time battleships faced each other in combat was in the Battle of the Leyte Gulf over 80 years ago.

After receiving criticism over his battleship plan, Trump did effectively admit that the project was a vanity project to distract from the continued cover-up of the Epstein files.

Trump may have another motivation for wanting the carrier named after him.  Trump feels like he deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor.  He has previously stated that he wanted to give himself the Congressional Medal of Honor due to his 2018 visit to Iraq, when he made a surprise visit to U.S. troops at Al Asad Air Force Base in Iraq’s Anbar province. “I was extremely brave,” Trump said of his visit.

On 9/11, rather than attend the memorial for the 9/11 victims in New York, Trump spoke at the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, TX.  In his speech, he mentioned that he wanted to give himself the Medal of Honor, saying “So tonight, the story will be that ‘Donald Trump wants the Congressional Medal of Honor for himself.’ I’m only kidding. Actually, I’m not kidding. I would like to.”

Backlash and Attempts at Compromise

Trump’s proposal to rename the carrier Dorrie Miller after himself still faces considerable backlash. President Derrick Johnson of the NAACP responded, “This is a slap in the face to every war hero and to every service member who has worn the uniform. It’s beyond comprehension for a president to want his own name on a Navy ship while our armed forces are living in deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.”`

Ret. Navy Adm. James Stavridis, also former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, urged the Trump administration not to “undo the excellent decision” to name the carrier after Miller.

lawmakers including Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) took to social media to condemn the potential name change.

“Dorie Miller’s bravery at Pearl Harbor is legendary and resulted in him being awarded the Navy Cross,” Kelly, a veteran, wrote on X on Aug. 20. “This aircraft carrier shouldn’t be renamed at all, let alone for Donald Trump, who has denigrated service members like Dorie Miller who have paid the ultimate price.”

Norcross echoed the concern. “The audacity to even suggest that we replace the name of Doris Miller, a hero whose courage shined on one of our nation’s darkest days, with draft-dodging Donald Trump is disgusting,” he wrote.

One proposal has been floated that may satisfy some, though probably not Donald Trump. The U.S. The U.S. Navy has discussed renaming the future aircraft carrier in honor of honor President Donald Trump, while simultaneously recommending Doris Miller for the Medal of Honor and exploring naming a different, smaller warship (such as a destroyer) after Miller.

Would this satisfy the president, having a carrier named after him, but still not receiving a Medal of Honor? It is hard to predict, although it is widely reported that Trump is still angry over Barack Obama receiving a Nobel Peace Prize, when he didn’t. Trump did his best to deny that Obama even qualified is a US citizen, and the Nobel Committee gave the Peace Prize to the black president anyway.

I am trying to keep an open mind about renaming the carrier for Trump. I would prefer to honor Dorrie Miller. On the other hand, hand the USS Ensign Bone Spurs has a nice ring to it.