Donald J. Trump

Sure.

Thank you very much, Steve, for having me over on the show on such a momentous occasion.

And before I talk of submarines, I want to recognize our men and women in uniform today.

We serve in the Navy, both at home, abroad, and in the high seas.

This display and show of force we saw today is first and foremost a message to our current troops, but also the future ones enlisting.

And in that sense, the Secretary of the Navy, Fallon, spoke of a very high pace of recruitment, which is, I think,

commensurate with both President Trump's doctrine of reinvigorating and recapitalizing our Navy, focusing obviously all of the political and the industrial might of the United States to continue being the greatest naval force the world over in a obviously more perilous world where freedom of navigation and

to those pundits at home and those allies and partners abroad who have talked a big talk about the US foreign policy being in retreat.

The AUKUS alliance, I think, is a very strong case against that perceived retreat.

or to continue projecting naval supremacy in the Indo-Pacific, a very large body of water, obviously, and one where there are at any given moment at least six, seven territorial disputes between China's People Liberation Navy or its maritime militia and our allies in the region from the Philippines to Vietnam to Malaysia or Japan.

Taiwan, Korea, or Indonesia.

And so reaffirming our commitment to AUKUS, this 40-year program which would build in the US three Virginia-class submarines to transfer to Australia and have some sort of a transfer of production, transfer of technology and partnership in collaboration with the UK, the only partner we've ever done a transfer of technology in the nuclear power propulsion

Deterrence is the name of the game.

Peace through strength is a doctrine.

And in fact,

stealth is probably today the single most important element of our nuclear triad, because in an age of shifting innovations in the war scenarios that we are seeing in Ukraine and elsewhere, low-tech technologies, low-tech weapon systems are increasingly

threatening, very expensive, very complex systems and platforms.

And whether it is unmanned surface drones or underwater drones or aerial drones that are having a major impact on conventional warfare for very low cost, I might add, it is absolutely fundamental that our submarine fleet remains the strongest fleet in the world and continues to grow.

No, Bridge Colby's done a great job.

Just this defense thing is coming out about China being a regional problem versus a global problem.