This live blog is now closed.
Robert Mackey, Shrai Popat, Lucy Campbell and Mabel Banfield-NwachiFri 14 Aug 2026 02.59 BSTShare
From 5h ago
White House releases Trump’s order to install steam catapults on new US aircraft carrier
The White House has released the full text of a memorandum from Donald Trump to Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, ordering a change in the construction of a new US Navy aircraft carrier, to replace the electromagnetic aircraft launch system with steam catapults.
The supposed superiority of steam catapults for launching fighter jets has been an obsession of the president’s since 2017 when, he says, he was convinced by a single conversation with a Navy officer that the electromagnetic system installed in modern aircraft carriers was too complex.
The presidential memorandum, titled, “Rebuilding the United States Navy and America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base”, claims to address “a series of shipbuilding setbacks stemming from overly complex designs” for US Navy ships.
Section 2 of the memo includes the order to change the construction of the USS Doris Miller, a Ford-class aircraft carrier known as CVN-81, which is already two years behind schedule:
Sec. 2. Restoring Steam and Hydraulic Systems to Carriers. Within 60 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of War, in consultation with the Secretary of the Navy, shall provide to the President, through the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), a plan on the required measures to replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems for the construction of CVN-81, including timelines and resourcing requirements.
Updated at 01.09 BST
Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
- After nearly a decade of complaining about the fact that US aircraft carriers use electromagnetic catapult systems to launch fighter jets, Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to remove the modern launch systems from a new aircraft carrier and install the steam catapults he prefers.
- The Trump-appointed board of the Kennedy Center voted to temporarily close the building for renovations, and to inscribe the Trump’s name on the memorial
- Hegseth said that concerns about conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln are “completely misrepresented”.
- Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told reporters he asked Trump to exempt Australia from a newly announced 12.5% tariff based on a supposed failure to crack down on forced labor during a “wide-ranging call”.
- Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year.
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Pentagon complains of ‘rampant misreporting’ on morale of US sailors but uses screenshots from Iranian state media
The US military’s Central Command, or Centcom, posted what it called a “fact check” on social media on Thursday, accompanied by a graphic that labeled six recent reports about a mental health crisis onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, during a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran, as “false” or “misinformed”.
The graphic includes screenshots of six headlines, but fails to explain which news outlets published them. A review by the Guardian reveals that three of the headlines, which repeat the false claim that seven US sailors died in a brawl on the ship, were taken from Iranian media outlets based in Tehran.
The text of the Centcom post complains about “rampant misreporting” from “multiple media outlets” about morale on board the aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East, but fails to explain that half of the outlets are linked to Iran’s government.
“One report alleged seven Sailors died in a brawl aboard the aircraft carrier and others have recently suggested a spike in suicidal ideations. These reports are FALSE”, the Centcom post reads.
But the Pentagon fact-checkers appear to be trying to discredit well-sourced, factual reporting from two specialist US news outlets, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, which first reported that multiple sailors have attempted to jump overboard, by lumping those reports together with propagandistic fiction from two Iranian state-owned outlets, Mehr News and Press TV, and a third, West Asia News Agency (WANA), which says it “strives to provide foreign audiences with news from Iran with a novel view and narrative.”
The Cenctom post ends by scolding the unnamed media outlets, calling their work “a disservice to our men and women in uniform and their loved ones”, reinforcing the false impression that the outlets spreading false information are American, not Iranian.Share
White House releases Trump’s order to install steam catapults on new US aircraft carrier
The White House has released the full text of a memorandum from Donald Trump to Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, ordering a change in the construction of a new US Navy aircraft carrier, to replace the electromagnetic aircraft launch system with steam catapults.
The supposed superiority of steam catapults for launching fighter jets has been an obsession of the president’s since 2017 when, he says, he was convinced by a single conversation with a Navy officer that the electromagnetic system installed in modern aircraft carriers was too complex.
The presidential memorandum, titled, “Rebuilding the United States Navy and America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base”, claims to address “a series of shipbuilding setbacks stemming from overly complex designs” for US Navy ships.
Section 2 of the memo includes the order to change the construction of the USS Doris Miller, a Ford-class aircraft carrier known as CVN-81, which is already two years behind schedule:
Sec. 2. Restoring Steam and Hydraulic Systems to Carriers. Within 60 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of War, in consultation with the Secretary of the Navy, shall provide to the President, through the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), a plan on the required measures to replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems for the construction of CVN-81, including timelines and resourcing requirements.
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Updated at 01.09 BST
Arizona senator Mark Kelly mocks Trump for meddling in aircraft carrier design
Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and US Navy test pilot, is not impressed by reports that Donald Trump ordered a massive change in the construction of aircraft carriers on Thursday, forcing the Navy to scrap modern electromagnetic catapult systems to launch fighter jets, and install old-fashioned steam-powered catapults.
Writing on social medial, Kelly commented:
I’ve launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times, have a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and am a test pilot and even I wouldn’t suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems on its ships. Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best — ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit.
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Updated at 00.34 BST
Sam Levin
Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year.
Internal investigative reports show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent undercover agents to community meetings in the Twin Cities and New York, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records of mainstream unions and left-leaning nonprofit groups.
Nearly 30 internal law enforcement reports were released on Thursday as part of a criminal case the Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed against 15 Minneapolis protesters. The defendants are accused of a “conspiracy” to “impede” US immigration officers during the Trump administration’s surge in the region.
The DHS investigative reports were disclosed by the government and submitted to the court by an attorney for one of the defendants. The records show that in January, DHS launched an inquiry called “Operation Puppet Master” to identify a “network of conspirators” organizing against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The operation came as community organizing against ICE was swelling in the region in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
A DHS report from February said the agency was looking into people who were “providing material support to violent opportunists and agitators”. The records suggest agents launched elaborate spying efforts targeting activists, protesters and mainstream progressive organizations opposing the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“I was shocked at the scope and the apparent lack of investigative discipline involved, but not totally surprised,” said Kevin Riach, an attorney for one of the indicted protesters, who filed the tranche of records in federal court.
US conducted ‘mass spying campaign’ against leftwing groups and anti-ICE protesters, records revealRead moreShare
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese says he urged Trump to lift tariffs in phone call
Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is currently describing the details of what he called “a very productive and wide-ranging call” with Donald Trump overnight in which he says he urged the US president to lift tariffs imposed on Australia.
Albanese said he asked Trump to exempt Australia from a newly announced 12.5% tariff based on a supposed failure to crack down on forced labor.
“The ask that I made of the president is that he consider full exemption” Albanese said.
“I informed him about our record when it comes to dealing with issues such as modern slavery, the strengthening that we have put forward as well, to look and hold companies accountable for the supply chain process as well,” the prime minister added.
“The president has a different position on tariffs, that he has expressed on a number of occasions over a number of years,” Albanese said. “We believe very much that tariffs are not in the interest of either the country that is having them imposed on them or the country imposting them.”
“I did ask that Australia’s position, as a friend of the United States, be considered”, Albanese said before adding that Trump said he would give it some thought.
The prime minister salso aid that he had expressed Australia’s view that an end to the US-Israel war on Iran was important, and said that Trump had provided him an extensive update on the war, but refused to divulge any details of that briefing. He also said that Australia supports the aim of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Albanese added that Trump thanked him for the work of more than 180 Australian firefighters dispatched to the US to help fight wildfires.Share
Updated at 23.25 BST
Trump orders US Navy to spend billions to install steam catapults in new aircraft carriers – reports
After nearly a decade of publicly complaining about the fact that US aircraft carriers use electromagnetic catapult systems to launch fighter jets, instead of the steam-powered catapults of old, Donald Trump has reportedly directed the US Navy to remove the modern launch systems from its aircraft carriers and install the old-fashioned steam catapults he prefers, according to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.
The Journal reports that Trump signed a national security memorandum on Thursday directing the change he has had his heart set on since at least 2017, when he first described his brainwave to Time magazine.
“You know the catapult is quite important. So I said, ‘What is this?’ ‘Sir, this is our digital catapult system’”, Trump told the magazine in 2017, recounting a conversation he said he had with a US Navy officer. “It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said–and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers – I said, ‘What system are you going to be’– ‘Sir, we’re staying with digital.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. You[’re] going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good’”.
A review of Trump’s public remarks shows that he has retold this story every year since 2017.
In 2018, Trump brought it up during a Thanksgiving day phone call with the commanding officer of the USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier docked in Hong Kong at the time. In 2019, he recounted his conversation with the “catapulter” to Republican donors at a fundraiser. In 2020, as the nation was grappling with a pandemic, the tale became a regular part of Trump’s campaign speeches. In 2021, he told the story at the CPAC convention. In 2022, he shared it in a campaign speech in Texas. He repeated it on the campaign trail in Iowa in 2023. At one of his final campaign events before the 2024 election, Trump told Tucker Carlson the same story.
After he returned to office in 2025, Trump brought up steam catapults during the swearing-in of Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence and then did so again in remarks to the crew of the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier based in Japan.
“We built an aircraft carrier for $19 billion, which is crazy. The price is crazy,” Trump recalled last month at the Army War College in Pennsylvania. “It had all sorts of modern day things that were all- instead of using steam for the catapults, they used electric.”
“So when I went to the ship, because I came into office and the ship was way over budget, built in Newport News,” Trump said. “I said, ‘I want to meet the catapulter’, and a man came over, along with four of his assistants. And I said, ‘What’s better: electric catapult or steam?’ He’s been there for 25 years. He said, ‘Steam is better, sir. We can fix it with a hammer and a blowtorch. When the electric goes bad, I have to send to MIT to get geniuses over here.’ I said, ‘Steam is better?’ ‘Yes, sir it’s better’”.
According to the Journal senior Navy and industry leaders “have resisted the move due to the enormous expense of tearing out such a complex system that was integral to the design” of the latest aircraft carriers.Share
Updated at 00.46 BST
Here’s a recap of the day so far
- The board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has once again voted to move forward with Donald Trump’s controversial plan to temporarily close the building for renovations, the New York Times reports, citing two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings. The decision will be subject to approval by a federal judge. In May, US district judge Christopher Cooper issued a temporary block on Trump’s demand to close the arts institution for two years of renovations, which was due to start in July after the board – mostly handpicked by the president – voted unanimously in favor.
- Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has said that concerns about conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln are “completely misrepresented”. This comes after several reports about food shortages and an intensifying mental health crisis on the vessel, that has now been deployed for more than 200 days, after it was redirected to the Middle East to assist with the military operation in Iran. More here
- Emily Moreno, the ex-wife of the embattled congressman Max Miller, has sued her former husband and his lawyer for uploading a picture of their infant daughter to a publicly accessible Dropbox folder as part of their custody battle. The complaint argues that Miller “recklessly published and disclosed to the world a nude image” of their daughter. The photos were part of a tranche of evidence that Miller’s team compiled in response to the domestic abuse allegations the lawmaker is facing following his divorce. More here
- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the Trump administration that alleged Harvard University failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment. In his ruling today, US district judge Richard Stearns in Boston said the Trump administration’s lawsuit, filed in March, had not plausibly shown an ongoing violation of federal civil rights law on Harvard’s campus. Stearns said the government’s allegations focused largely on incidents amid protests over Israel’s war in Gaza during the 2023/24 school year, with only a handful of later incidents alleged in March 2025 that were “too isolated and episodic” to support a claim of ongoing civil rights violations.
Reference Link:- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/aug/13/karoline-leavitt-white-house-primaries-trump-politics-latest-updates