NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- President Donald Trump pledged to boost defense spending Thursday as he spoke from aboard a next-generation naval aircraft carrier.
Wearing an olive green military jacket and blue ball cap, Trump vowed to mount "one of the largest" defense spending increases in history.
"Hopefully it's power we don't have to use, but if we do, they're in big, big trouble," Trump said.
Trump spoke from the Gerald R. Ford, a $12.9 billion warship that is expected to be commissioned this year after cost overruns and delays. He touted his spending plans, saying he would provide "the finest equipment in the world" and give the military the "tools you need to prevent war."
The president also toured the carrier and met with sailors and military leaders. He saluted the sailors as he arrived on the carrier.
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Before his remarks, Trump was asked about the revelation that Attorney General Jeff Sessions twice talked with Moscow's U.S. envoy during the campaign, contact that appears to contradict Sessions' sworn statements to Congress during his confirmation hearings.
While there were mounting calls for Sessions to resign or recuse himself, Trump stood by Sessions on Thursday, saying he had "total" confidence in his attorney general. Asked if Sessions should recuse himself, Trump said: "I don't think so."
Sessions announced that he would recuse himself Thursday afternoon.
During his trip to Newport News, Trump was joined aboard Air Force One by Defense Secretary James Mattis.
A draft budget plan released earlier this week by the White House would add $54 billion to the Pentagon's projected budget, a 10 percent increase. The U.S. currently spends more than a half trillion dollars on defense, more than the next seven countries combined.
"To keep America safe, we must provide the men and women of the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war," Trump said in his Tuesday night address to Congress.
Trump, in his 2016 campaign, repeatedly pledged to rebuild what he called the nation's "depleted" military and told supporters at Regent University in Virginia Beach in October that the region's naval installations would be "right at the center of the action with the building of new ships."
He often argued that the U.S. military is too small to accomplish its missions and pledged to put the Navy on track to increase its active-duty fleet to 350 ships, compared with the current Navy plan of growing from 272 ships to 308 sometime after 2020.
The PCU Gerald R. Ford CVN 78, at Newport News Shipbuilding, will be the first of the Navy's next generation of aircraft carriers and is expected to accommodate about 2,600 sailors.
A Section on 03/03/2017