-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on the Trump battleships, while American families can't even keep their heads above water, Donald Trump is spending his time building himself a ``golden fleet'' of battleships the Navy doesn't want.

Just get a load of this headline: ``Cost of Trump's Namesake Warships Likely to Rise by 50 Percent or More.''

Costs to rise by 50 percent or more.

As the article in the New York Times says, his goal is building a ``golden fleet'' of 15 battleships that cost $275 billion. Frankly, when Americans hear this, they have no idea whether they need the battleships. They know the only thing Trump cares about is having his name on things. So the fact that there is a fleet of Trump battleships--cost doesn't mean anything; necessity doesn't mean anything; that people are suffering and need help feeding their families, paying their electric bills, and paying the cost of gasoline means nothing to him. Having his name on a bunch of battleships-- expensive battleships--is all he cares about.

Trump couldn't handle renovating a reflecting pool or building a ballroom, and now he thinks he is ready to design and construct 15 ``Trump-class''--I mean, this guy, he knows no limits--``Trump-class'' battleships that will cost more than a quarter of a trillion taxpayer dollars--a quarter of a trillion dollars. He has had a lot of vanity projects. They have been very expensive. This is the most costly vanity project yet.

The Navy never wanted these ships. The American people never asked for these ships. The only person who wants these ``golden'' ships is Donald Trump so he can slap his name on them.

Trump's willingness to drop $275 billion on another vanity project but not a single penny to lower costs for working Americans just confounds the imagination. Trump could use the money for these battleships to offset the entire nearly $200 billion cut he made to SNAP.

Feeding hungry kids or creating an unnecessary class of battleships to put your name on--which is more important, America? The answer is a lot different than what Trump thinks. But no. Trump would rather feed his own ego than feed the American people. He would rather feed his own ego than feed the American people by putting his name on a $275 billion, 15-battleship outlay.

The ballroom, the Reflecting Pool, the arch, and now the battleships--these are the reasons why more than 7 in 10 Americans think Trump is not focusing on the top issues facing the country.

Donald, the American people don't need a fleet of golden Trump-class battleships right now; they need a life raft.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source