The future USS Doris Miller was supposed to become the first aircraft carrier named after a Black sailor and an enlisted service member. It was supposed to honor the heroic mess attendant who grabbed an anti-aircraft gun he’d never been trained to use during the Pearl Harbor attack, becoming the first Black American to receive the Navy Cross. Now the Navy is thinking of stripping his name from the ship and replacing it with Trump’s, which would represent the first time in history a Navy vessel has been named for a sitting president—not to mention a draft dodger who got a family doctor to certify that he has spurs in his heels and is therefore medically unfit to be deployed in Vietnam.
CNN reports:
The US Navy is working to rename an aircraft carrier under construction that was set to honor a Black sailor hailed for his heroic actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor, three sources familiar with internal discussions told CNN. During President Donald Trump’s first term, the Navy announced that the Ford-class carrier would be called the USS Doris Miller, recognizing an enlisted sailor who helped defend US forces from Japan’s attack.
It’s unclear what the Navy is seeking to change the name of the carrier to, though two of the sources said there have been internal conversations about renaming it to honor Trump. …
The Navy convened a renaming commission in 2025 under former Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, to review how ships and other military assets were named. Phelan believes aircraft carriers specifically should be named only after presidents, Navy admirals, and consequential Navy battles, a person familiar with his thinking said. … The Navy commission came amid broader efforts in the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to remove names selected for what the administration considers diversity, equity, and inclusion purposes.
The Navy says Miller may get a Medal of Honor upgrade and have a different ship named after him. But there is no way to soften the blow: Miller, a Black war hero, is being asked to give way to a sitting president obsessed with naming monuments after himself.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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