An aircraft carrier meant to be named after a Black sailor credited with rescuing shipmates during the attack on Pearl Harbor is inexplicably being renamed—potentially after Donald Trump.
Two unnamed sources cited by CNN late Thursday said there have been internal discussions about renaming the vessel to honor the 80-year-old president.
The carrier was touted as a tribute to Doris “Dorie” Miller back in Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, and former Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly announced during a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day ceremony in January 2020 that it would be named the USS Doris Miller.
The move to rename the Ford-class carrier has reportedly been quietly in the works for several months, with the ship referred to only by its hull number in internal documents. Trump’s executive order on shipbuilding last week also referred to the ship by its hull number, CVN-81, rather than its originally intended name.
In addition to the renaming effort, according to the report, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao has been looking into changes to the official guidance on who ships can be named after, including presidents.
The Navy might name a different warship after Miller instead, and the war hero is also being recommended for a Medal of Honor, one source told CNN, which would require final approval from Trump himself.
Reached for comment by the Daily Beast, a Pentagon spokesperson said they had nothing to announce at this time.
Miller’s great-nephew, Thomas Bledsoe, told CNN that Miller’s family wasn’t notified of the Navy’s intent to recommend him for a Medal of Honor, but said the move was “very positive.”
The rumored carrier renaming follows the administration’s efforts to downplay reports of horrific conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has only now been relieved to return home after being at sea since November amid Trump’s war with Iran.
Families of sailors aboard the carrier have reported inadequate food, out-of-service toilets, and intense exhaustion from nine months on the open ocean. However, both Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the reports.
Asked by reporters whether the deployment had gone on too long to the point of creating mental health risks, Trump said earlier this month that they hadn’t been deployed “nearly long enough.”
Hegseth shared similar sentiments, saying that the reports have “completely misrepresented” what’s going on.
“We make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain, has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” Hegseth, 46, told reporters in Panama last week. “Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody.”
