US commissions its largest-ever warship, the USS Gerald R Ford

With praise and a blessing for the military, President Donald Trump helped hand over the USS Gerald R Ford to the US Navy and said the state-of-the-art aircraft carrier will send a “100,000-tonne message to the world” about America’s military might when it is ultimately deployed.

US allies will rest easy, Trump said at the ceremony on Saturday, but America’s enemies will “shake with fear” when they see the Ford cutting across the horizon.

The president and commander in chief of the US armed forces likened the $12.9 billion warship to “an incredible work of art” and boasted about the American labor that went into building a vessel that eventually will house thousands of sailors and crew members.