President Donald Trump dances after delivering a speech to thousands of sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Oct. 28, 2025. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — President Donald Trump spoke for nearly an hour Tuesday aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, combing through a range of topics, from drug cartels in the Caribbean to the cost of groceries in America.
The president addressed approximately 6,000 U.S. and Japanese sailors inside the USS George Washington’s cavernous hangar at Yokosuka, homeport of the U.S. 7th Fleet on Tokyo Bay.
“On behalf of all Americans, I just want to say it loud and clear: Thank you very much,” he told the troops. “What you’re doing is incredible.”
During his 50-minute speech, Trump elicited a round of sailors’ cheers by saying he supports “an across the board pay raise for every sailor.”
He was also briefly joined on stage by Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who said Japan would commit to increasing its defense capabilities.
President Donald Trump applauds thousands of sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Oct. 28, 2025. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
Trump made no mention of the government shutdown, now 28 days old, during which service members may not be paid and many Defense Department employees are furloughed.
Military paychecks came through on Oct. 15 with Pentagon funds diverted from other accounts, but money may run out by Nov. 15 absent an agreement to fund the government, CBS News reported Sunday, quoting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Trump also told sailors that 2025 marked the Navy’s best recruitment numbers in “many generations.”
The service reached its 2025 recruiting goal three months ahead of the new fiscal year when it contracted with 40,600 enlistees by June 18, according to a Navy news release.
Marine One lands aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Oct. 28, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Strip)
The service enlisted nearly 41,000 new sailors in fiscal 2024, more than any year since 2002, according to the June release.
After an informal poll by sailors’ cheers, Trump said he would pause work on electromagnetic catapults designed to hurl aircraft from the decks of new Gerald Ford-class carriers and focus on steam-powered catapults like those aboard the George Washington and other Nimitz-class carriers.
He also promised to halt development on advanced weapons elevators aboard the new carriers.
“When it comes to defending the United States, we’re no longer politically correct,” the president said. “We’ll defend our country any way we have to, and that’s usually not the politically correct way. From now on, if we’re in a war, we’re going to win the war. We’re going to win it like nobody ever before.”
President Donald Trump departs Marine One aboard the aircraft carrier USS Geoge Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Oct. 28, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Strip)
Trump spoke briefly about gas prices, mortgage rates and grocery prices, which he said were falling under his administration.
The Agriculture Department predicted in September that overall food prices this year would increase by 3% over the previous year.
Trump later boasted that drug cartels, whose every delivery, he said, kills tens of thousands of Americans, were reeling as the U.S. destroys their speed boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific.
“We’re waging war like they’ve never seen before, and we’re going to win that battle,” he said. “We’re winning it already, the sea. I mean, the only problem is, nobody wants to go into the sea anymore, even the fishing boats.”
Trump’s campaign against the cartels, undertaken without congressional approval, is spurring dissent among some Republican lawmakers, though many continue to support it.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to service members aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Oct. 28, 2025. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
Before Trump took the stage, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke for about 15 minutes.
“What President Trump is doing pretty simple, but it’s revolutionary,” he told the sailors. “He’s reminding the country and our adversaries that we’re going to put America first.”
“America first” isn’t “America alone,” he said, while praising the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Hegseth arrived in Tokyo that afternoon and is scheduled to meet his Japanese counterpart, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, on Wednesday.
Trump began speaking to the sailors around 4:15 p.m., hours after meeting in central Tokyo with Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, who took office on Oct. 21.
The two leaders signed several bilateral agreements outlining economic cooperation, including deals on rare earth minerals and natural gas.
Trump arrived in Tokyo on Monday after a stop in Malaysia, where he visited Kuala Lumpur for the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He’s expected to head to South Korea on Wednesday to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
