Shipyards have a way of telling the truth. Steel does not care about narratives, and submarines are unimpressed by talking points. You can feel almost immediately whether a place is alive or merely surviving, whether it is building toward something or simply managing decline. Inside the submarine construction building at Huntington Ingalls Industries in Newport News, there was no ambiguity. This was not a museum to American sea power. It was a factory, and it was humming with purpose.
Behind the podium stood the USS Oklahoma, a Virginia-class submarine whose very existence is meant to complicate the lives of adversaries who will never see it, never hear it, and may never fully understand what went wrong until it is far too late. That, and the giant American flag hung above it, was the backdrop chosen by Pete Hegseth for the first stop of what the Trump administration calls the Arsenal of Freedom Tour, and the choice of venue was not incidental. It was the message.
Just days after the successful capture of Nicolás Maduro, a raid that focused global attention on American military power, competence, and resolve, Hegseth found himself under an intense international spotlight, both favorable and hostile. He could have used that moment to debate policy, score political points, or bask in victory. Instead, he redirected that attention toward shipbuilding and the American industrial base. And he asked gCaptain to be there with him to share his remarks with the world.
He came to speak directly to the men and women whose hands turn national strategy into steel reality. Welders, electricians, pipefitters, engineers, planners, apprentices, and master shipbuilders stood where lobbyists usually do not, listening as a cabinet secretary told them plainly that they are not an afterthought in American power. They are the arsenal.
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