By THE ALASKA STORY
President Donald Trump released a major maritime strategy on Friday aimed at expanding American shipbuilding, easing regulations on commercial carriers, and boosting domestic maritime jobs, an initiative that carries particular weight for Alaska, where shipping is the backbone of daily life.
The White House called the plan “the first holistic approach” to strengthening the US maritime industry and streamlining government procurement. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told reporters Friday morning that the administration intends to drive “hundreds of billions of dollars” in new investment, fulfilling Trump’s pledge “to build ships in America.”
For Alaska, the implications are immediate. Nearly everything consumed in the state arrives by ship: fuel, groceries, construction materials, industrial equipment. At the same time, Alaska borders an increasingly contested Arctic where Russian and Chinese activity has forced the US to rethink its maritime readiness. A strong domestic shipbuilding base has become a strategic necessity.
The numbers show how far the US has fallen in shipbuilding. America builds less than 1% of the world’s commercial ships. Only 11 shipyards nationwide currently have real, ongoing ship construction work booked and underway, and just eight are capable of constructing vessels longer than 400 feet. The supply chain has consolidated to the point where critical components often come from a single supplier. Meanwhile, virtually all of America’s oceangoing trade moves on foreign-built, foreign-crewed, foreign-flagged vessels.
Kelly said America’s strategic position and shipbuilding industrial capacity have been weakened over decades by unnecessary regulatory burdens and a lack of sustained policy focus. She also accused foreign competitors of using unfair trade practices to expand their shipbuilding dominance while the US allowed its industrial ecosystem to erode.
The plan, known as Trump’s Maritime Action Plan, (MAP) is being described as the most ambitious attempt to reverse that decline since the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. It is notable not only for its scope but for how the administration is positioning it: not as transportation policy, but as national survival. The document was signed not by the Transportation Secretary, but by Marco Rubio as National Security Advisor and Russell Vought as OMB Director, a signal that the White House views shipbuilding as a strategic imperative.
Trump wrote in the plan’s introduction that the administration will “revitalize our once-great shipyards with hundreds of billions of dollars in new investments…to build ships in America.”
The MAP seeks to rebuild an entire maritime industrial base, from shipyards, suppliers, workforce pipelines, design capacity, to manufacturing systems capable of sustaining themselves once federal support tapers off.
Among the most consequential proposals is a fee on foreign-built vessels entering US ports, assessed by imported tonnage. The plan suggests that even a modest charge could generate tens of billions of dollars over a decade, while a higher fee could raise far more, potentially funding a dedicated Maritime Security Trust Fund. Such a funding stream would be unprecedented in modern American shipbuilding and could determine whether the plan becomes real or remains aspirational.
The MAP also proposes creating 100 Maritime Prosperity Zones across the coasts, Great Lakes, river systems, Alaska, Hawaii, and US territories.
For Alaska, those zones could be pivotal. Properly designed, they could attract private investment into ship repair, port modernization, workforce training, and Arctic-capable vessel construction in communities that already serve as maritime lifelines, such as Anchorage, Kodiak, Seward, and Dutch Harbor among them.
Another key mechanism is an expansion of the Capital Construction Fund, a tax-deferral tool long used by vessel owners, to include shipyard owners as well. The administration argues that allowing shipyards to reinvest earnings into modernization could accelerate the rebuilding of domestic capacity.
The plan also includes a “Bridge Strategy” that would rely on allied shipbuilders to construct initial vessels abroad while investing in U.S. shipyards, with later production shifting fully to American yards. Officials pointed to Finland’s role in Arctic icebreaker cooperation as an early model — an approach that could directly intersect with Alaska’s growing importance in Arctic operations.
The MAP addresses broader maritime readiness concerns as well, including the aging Ready Reserve Fleet, shortages of qualified civilian mariners, and the urgent need to modernize training institutions like the US Merchant Marine Academy. It also includes an Arctic maritime strategy and acknowledges that autonomous vessel technology and AI navigation are advancing faster than regulatory frameworks.
