Former President Donald Trump complained repeatedly about how “ugly” he found U.S. Navy ships, his Defense Secretary Mark Esper revealed in his upcoming book, according to The Hill.
In his book, “A Sacred Oath,” Esper writes that Trump preferred the “sleek” lines of Russian and Italian ships. The book is due out Tuesday.
Esper had to remind the then-commander-in-chief that the ships weren’t competing in a beauty contest (something Trump has experience with), but were made to powerfully and effectively engage in battle.
“On multiple occasions, the president complained that the U.S. Navy ships ‘look ugly,’ while the Russian and Italian ships, for example, ‘look nicer, sleeker, like a real ship,’” wrote Esper.
“Maybe so, but as I told the president in defense of the Navy, ‘Our ships are built to fight and win, not win beauty contests; we prize function over form,’” he said. “That didn’t satisfy him.”
While an odd preoccupation for a president, Trump’s gripes about the American ships were among the more benign Oval Office issues Esper reveals in his book.