This article was published exclusively on Tencent News
Author: The Sky
Assistant Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Tongji University
U.S. President Donald Trump recently came up with another eye-popping "new idea" for armaments: he claimed to sign an executive order requiring the U.S. Navy's new aircraft carrier to abandon the latestElectromagnetic ejectionYes, you haven’t heard wrong – in the 21st century, he intended to make the aircraft carrier’s launchers “go back to age and childhood”, back to the era of steam power.
01 Trump's "catapult" remarks: when and where, and why?
On October 28, 2025, Trump, who was visiting Japan, boarded the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier "George Washington", and suddenly spoke to the U.S. Army in Japan during the speech, shooting high-tech equipment of the new aircraft carrier. he complained that the electromagnetic launch system used by the Ford-class aircraft carrier was expensive and difficult, and even claimed to sign an executive order, so that the future U.S. aircraft carrier "will all return to steam launchers and hydraulic lifts."。In this speech, which was described by the media as "incoherent" and "rambling", Trump wanted to see steam gushing out and believed that electromagnetic catapults were a waste of huge military expenditures. In fact, his bizarre remarks were not a whim. His "obsession" with aircraft carrier ejection technology has a long history.As early as May 2017, the first president Trump had openly bombed an electromagnetic bomber in an interview with the Weekly Times.。At that time, the USS Ford aircraft carrier had not yet been officially commissioned. After listening to reports from officials on the ship, Trump was very dissatisfied with the so-called "digital ejection" and shouted: "You have to be like Einstein to understand it."
Trump's weird complaint that "Einstein can understand" quickly made headlines in major media, causing a burst of confusion among professionals. Pentagon officials also had to come out to "put out the fire" and explain, saying that the president's words were "true, but the information may not be complete." They believed that he would dispel his concerns after explaining the latest developments to him. However, Trump's prejudice against electromagnetic ejection has obviously not been eliminated.In 2019, when he visited the two-way offensive ship "Yongbye" at the base in Yokohama, the old saying was repeated.On the deck, Trump directed the “damp or electromagnetic” officers: “Damp or electromagnetic?” Most sailors shouted “damp!” and a few shouted “electromagnetic!” Trump joked pointing to the electromagnetic, saying: “He must be a spy.” Then he said: “The steam system has been perfect for 65 years, and the new carrier’s electromagnetic bullets have cost over $900 million. Everyone loves innovation, but this innovation is overwhelmed.”"Return to steam" is not Trump's temporary joke, but a personal claim that he repeatedly emphasized during his first term-although this claim has been questioned and even ridiculed in the military。
02 From steam to electromagnetism: the past and present of aircraft carrier ejection technology
To understand why Trump is so "unhappy" with electromagnetic launchers, it is necessary to first understand the development of aircraft carrier launch systems.。 Simply put, the role of the aircraft carrier launchers is to help the carrier aircraft accelerate to take-off speed on a flight deck of just a few dozen meters, equivalent to giving the aircraft a sharp push so that it can take off from the aircraft carrier.Therefore, the bomber is known as the "force multiplier" of aircraft carriers, and its performance is directly related to the operational efficiency of aircraft carriers.
The steam ejection system is an old technology that has been used on traditional aircraft carriers for decades. As early as the 1950s, when the jet era was just emerging after World War II, the British "invented" the steam catapult and successfully tested it on the aircraft carrier. The United States soon applied this technology to its own large aircraft carriers. The principle of the so-called steam ejection is actually not complicated: the ship's boiler (or steam generated by the nuclear reactor) is used to push the piston, and the slider connected to the landing gear of the aircraft is pulled at a high speed in a short distance, thereby "bouncing" the aircraft out. Steam ejection technology is mature and reliable, and has been used by various naval powers for decades. It can be said that for a long period of time, the steam catapult has been the "anchoring needle" on the deck of the aircraft carrier, giving the aircraft carrier the ability to project power globally.
However, Traditional steam catapults also have obvious limitations。 First, the thrust is unadjustable, the initial impact is large, and the life of the aircraft is damaged; Second, the recovery speed is slow, each aircraft needs to re-accumulate pressure, and the number of ejections per unit time is limited.In intense air warfare, this means that the wavelength output rate is low, not conducive to the rapid formation of air force; three are heavy, occupy space, and are difficult to maintain; four are overweight to light drones and can not be adapted to future diversified models.
Because of the above reasons, the U.S. Navy began to plan a new generation of aircraft carrier ejection system as early as the beginning of this century to solve the inherent shortcomings of steam ejection. Eventually, they targeted an advanced technology in the field of electrical engineering: electromagnetic detonation.It uses the powerful electromagnetic force generated by the linear induction motor to propel the vehicle and eject the aircraft. In a simple analogy, electromagnetic ejection is equivalent to turning the catapult into a huge "electromagnetic gun"-activating the magnetic field through current to accelerate the movement of the slider along the guide rail, without the need for boiler steam to be used as "gunpowder". It is generally believed that this new system has the following advantages, which are superior to the steam system. First, the thrust is adjustable and can adapt to aircraft of different weights; Second, the ejection process is linear and stable, reducing the impact on the body; Third, the reset is fast and the dispatch frequency is higher (an increase of about 25% per day); Fourth, the system is lighter and occupies a smaller volume; The fifth is to support new platforms such as drones and light reconnaissance aircraft.
However, as a new system, electromagnetic systems also have growth troubles. 2017-2019 During the year, the U.S. Department of Defense's evaluation report repeatedly mentioned that the Ford-class aircraft carrier's "critical navigation system reliability is not up to standard." After these negative news came out, coupled with the soaring overall construction costs of Ford-class vehicles, it is no wonder that layman "bosses" like Trump were dissatisfied. However, in the opinion of professionals, electromagnetic launches represent the future development direction of the aircraft carrier, its superiority is undoubted, only time to mature.Although steam ejection has made outstanding achievements, it belongs to yesterday's flower after all. Therefore, when Trump repeatedly advocates "returning to the steam", the consideration behind it is quite meaningful.
A dream of the golden age.
Anyone familiar with the Trump style knows that the president is better advised by experts than by "common sense judgment" and "business minds". He likes to "go by intuition", even if this intuition and mainstream view is the same. In the case of the aircraft carrier launcher, Trump's intuition clearly tells him that new is not as old, and expensive is not necessarily good. Comprehensive public reports and his own remarks can speculate that the motivation for his insistence on "return to steam" is mainly the following:
The first is distrust and cognitive deviation of new technologies.In his opinion, the electromagnetic detonator appears to be a kind of too complex, insidious, and not even commonly understood high-tech headworm, which leads to the self-resistance of the "external leadership internally". It can be said that Trump's attitude represents a typical technical skepticism: he tends to believe in some negative information he intuitively hears, while the system interpretations given to professionals subsequently selectively ignore or even shake his nose.
The second is dissatisfaction with cost overruns and project managementIn the Ford-class aircraft carrier, Trump saw a typical budget “black hole”: the entire ship’s price jumped from less than the initial estimated $10 billion to $13 billion. In which electromagnetic bombers and other new technologies are frequently exposed to over-funding and progress delay problems. Trump grabbed this pain point, believing that electromagnetic bombardment was the culprit of the aircraft carrier cost surge. In Trump’s eyes, the new bombardment appeared to be a typical counterpart of wasting taxpayer money. Therefore, he argued that “return to steam” was also in some way a philosophy of financial reason.
The third is political gesture and attitude to the public.It is important to note that Trump’s actions often have a strong political performance component, and he is deeply aware of how to vote for the voters and shape a hard and pragmatic image of the individual. The criticism of electromagnetic bombardment, the demand to go back and forth in some sense is also the drama code he shapes himself “to dare to challenge the authority, to correct the military mistakes” image. For many Trump supporters, hearing the president’s anger of a high-tech equipment burn money is useless, instead of advocating his long-tested old approach, may feel “this leadership is grounded, minded, not overlooked by the military complex.” Trump has just caught some voters’ dissatisfaction with military spending and technological mistakes, and he can use the English engineering to reflect his inten
Of course, Trump's preference for steam catapults may come from nostalgia for the glorious era of the United States in the last century. Perhaps in Trump's view, while aircraft carriers still rely on gushing steam, U.S. hegemony can still be deployed around the world. But just as electromagnetism will eventually replace steam, Trump shouted,"We want to go back to steam!" After all, it was just a political show on stage. The golden age of the United States is also coming to an end.
Author extended information
Hello, readers and friends of Tencent News! I am Luo Tianyu, a young scholar focusing on international political research. Usually, I am forced to "pretend to be calm and observe" in the midst of complicated situations, trying to sort out some logical clues from the game between major powers and security dilemmas. Here, I will share some thoughts and analyses, not seeking enlightenment, but seeking to rationally see the context of world changes with you. Welcome to pay attention and discuss together.