In a move that has raised eyebrows from Arizona to the Pentagon, Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat and retired Navy officer, has slammed the Navy's reported consideration of naming an aircraft carrier after Donald Trump instead of WWII hero Doris Miller. Kelly's comments came as the Navy mulls renaming a carrier originally set to honor Miller, a Black war hero who served with distinction during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Meanwhile, in a separate but equally head-scratching development, Senator Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican and cattle rancher, has publicly opposed a plan announced by Trump to increase imported ground beef. Sheehy took to X to express his dismay, noting that he had advised the President against this for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against the packer monopoly for decades. 'The President's heart is in the right place on wanting lower prices for the American people,' Sheehy wrote, 'but the reality is this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down.' He added, with a touch of political irony, that most of these ranchers are 'MAGA Republicans.'

Trump's plan, announced on Truth Social, would allow 300,000 metric tonnes of beef to be imported without tariffs over the next 90 days, to be sold for hamburger at a 25 percent discount to current prices. The President framed this as a measure to lower prices 'as we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers.' Given that the US beef cattle herd is near historic lows and beef prices have skyrocketed, with the average price of ground beef hitting $7.12 a pound (a 9.4 percent year-over-year increase, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics), one might think the gesture would be welcomed. But Sheehy, and apparently the ranchers he represents, see it as a slap in the face.

Kelly, for his part, didn't mince words: 'This is a slap in the face to every war hero and every service member who has worn the uniform. It's beyond comprehension for a president to want his own name on a Navy ship while our armed forces are living in deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.' He went on to note that millions of Black women and men have served in the military, defending freedoms often not afforded to them, and that Trump is 'making a mockery of that legacy by treating military service as another opportunity for personal branding.' Kelly concluded, 'Our brave service members signed up to defend the nation, not the fragile ego of one man. America deserves better than this.'

Indeed, one might say that naming a ship after a president who reportedly wants it is a bit like naming a hospital after a plague - it's a choice, but perhaps not the wisest one.