Interesting article on foreign built ships: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/climate/trump-arctic-ships.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2FA.4Rqe.sch_NH2eXlrE&smid=url-share
That’s because we’re also taking over Antartica! figure 3 or 5 of them will be in port, in dry dock at most any time. besides, we’re tired of fighting in the tropics, we haven’t had a ‘‘cold’’ war since …? … the aleutian islands in ww2. Well, germany in ww2 wasn’t any picknick but it wasn’t Greenland either! I’d guess maintaining the new sea routes and mineral extraction figure prominently?
and yes, I did read the dollar costs involved, there may be ‘‘influences’’ at work here with finland being far north but it surely isn’t a blank check.
From the New York Times article:
“And while seven of the ships are expected to be built in the United States, the first four would be built in Finland,…”
“Mr. Trump had long fixated on these hulking vessels, known as…”
“At that moment, though, none of that mattered. Mr. Trump wanted more icebreakers, and he wanted them from Finland.”
“Mr. Trump’s personal intervention in Coast Guard ships provides new insights into how his administration has cut corners and flouted rules in pursuit of projects that suit the president’s desires, regardless…”
"My neighbors have a lot of kids, so they bought a minivan,” Mr. O’Rourke said. “Does that mean that my wife and I, who have no kids, also need to buy a minivan?”
I swear, what a disgrace the New York Times had become. That article read like the tabloid The National Enquirer or a high school papers gossip column. Now when I see the words, “New York Times”, I file their b.s in the part of my brain next to the stuff I read from Fox News, The Onion & Babylon Bee. But at least those last 3 can be funny most times.
The last time the US designed an icebreaker it was the senior architects at now defunct Avondale Shipyard in the mid 1990’s. All those men who were senior citizens at that time are retired or most likely dead. Current American shipyards have a hard enough time building cookie cutter ships that we never stopped producing. It would be a complete cluster f*ck to ask them to build a type of ship that hasn’t been splashed in the water in the US since 1999. And the one before the 1999 ship was splashed in the water in the 1970’s!? Everyone agrees the Finns are the best icebreaker builders in the world. Only the dead brain people at the NYT’s & their followers think it is a bad idea to attempt to learn from the Finns. Icebreaker building is one of the things Trump had done right IMO. Good for him & good for us.
You forget abolishing the penny?
Finns also helped a lot with Healy.