Donald Trump on Friday touted his plan to build up the Navy during a rally in Pennsylvania, promising to expand the ship-building industry to create jobs.
{mosads}“Our Navy is the smallest its been since World War I,” he said at the rally in Newtown. “My plan will be to build 350 ships. We need a 350-ship Navy.”
“I will instruct my secretary of the Navy to study locations like Philadelphia, with a long history of service to our military and proximity to vibrant private industry and find ways to involve them in this national effort,” he added.
The GOP nominee first detailed his plans to expand the military in a speech in Philadelphia in September.
The Trump campaign released a memo on Friday highlighting the proposal, and promising to use facilities like the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
“A Trump administration would fully utilize those parts of the Philadelphia Yard that remain in Navy hands and rapidly expand its activities to meet the Fleet’s growing science and technology needs – creating thousands of new jobs in the process,” read the memo from Alexander Gray, a senior military adviser to Trump.
“Leveraging the under-utilized capacity of the Philadelphia yard will alleviate pressure on other over-stretched facilities and provide an ideal location for tasks the Navy desperately needs accomplished.”
According to RealClearPolitics, Trump trails Hillary Clinton by an average of 6.2 points in recent polls in Pennsylvania.