Secretary of the Navy John Phelan laid it out plain on My View with Lara Trump: China openly desires to be the world power, and to get there it must dominate the seas. That reality is uncomfortable for the left-leaning elites who spent years gutting American shipyards and treating our military like a social experiment, but it is exactly the kind of wake-up call citizens and lawmakers need. Phelan’s bluntness is refreshing and overdue in a national conversation that too often tips toward denial.
Phelan reminded viewers that to be a superpower you must be a sea power, a fundamental truth that generations of American patriots understood long before bureaucrats invented diversity memos. It highlights the simple, hard fact that naval strength is the backbone of global influence and economic security. When you strip away the political spin, the answer is straightforward: more ships, better training, and a wartime mindset in peacetime.
Make no mistake, China’s shipyards and missile programs are not benign commercial ventures; they are instruments of coercion designed to remake the global order. Conservatives have warned for years that soft policies and budgetary complacency would invite aggressive revisionism, and now the Navy’s own leader is sounding the alarm. If America values liberty and the free flow of commerce, we must invest in the tools that guarantee them.
It is encouraging to see a secretary who speaks like a leader and thinks like an American, focused on revitalizing shipbuilding, sharpening warfighting culture, and recruiting the best young men and women. Phelan’s private-sector experience should translate into accountability where career bureaucrats have failed, cutting waste and forcing results. We should back leaders who put readiness and results ahead of Washington groupthink.
Congress and the administration must respond with more than warm words and symbolic tours; we need sustained funding, streamlined procurement, and a secure industrial base that can out-produce any adversary. That means supporting our shipbuilders, defending American ports, and securing supply chains from foreign manipulation. Anything less is a betrayal of the generations who fought to keep our seas free.
This moment calls for clarity and courage, and Secretary Phelan delivered both in plain terms. Patriots across the country should press their representatives to match his seriousness with action, because talk without ships is just wishful thinking. America still leads the world by the strength of its arms and the resolve of its people, and we must never cede that advantage.
