The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.

President Trump talks a good game, but doesn’t solve economic problems. He only worsens our situation. Gas prices are soaring because of his delusional Iran War. Trump is a vanity president: tearing down part of the White House to build a ballroom in his image, funded by billionaires; adding his name to the Kennedy Center; putting his picture on new U.S. passports and printing U.S. currency with his signature. Then there is his directive to build a new “Trump-class” battleship.

Battleships went the way of the dodo bird after Pearl Harbor. The last thing the U.S. Navy needs is a costly, obsolete battleship program. Trump, heedless of history and military technology, ordered billionaire Secretary of the Navy John Phelan to somehow build this anachronism. Trump, showing his age, was inspired by “Victory at Sea”, a 1950s TV documentary series. Lacking support, planning, modern shipyards and enough skilled workers, Trump’s folly never left dry dock; Phelan was fired.

Trump failed again. He didn’t “restore America as a major shipbuilding power.” However, the idea has merit if not used as just another vanity project. The U.S. desperately needs a commercial and military shipbuilding industry. American workers can be trained, shipyards built or modernized on the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Lake Michigan coasts — a win-win for national security, business and union workforce, no matter the politics. Common ground. That’s the approach of Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, outlined in his stellar book “Wrecked The Edmund Fitzgerald and the Sinking of the American Economy.”

It’s a powerful book rebuking corporate mismanagement, calling for economic security and rebuilding our industrial base. Nelson, citing his article in the conservative National Review, said: “How can Democrats and Republicans alike honor the memory of the Edmund Fitzgerald (sank in 1975, Lake Superior)? Revitalize American shipbuilding for our economic and national security. With shipyards in Marinette, Manitowoc and Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin is uniquely positioned to thrive in a reinvigorated industry.” Nelson reminds us a Manitowoc shipyard built 28 submarines during WWII, contributing to winning the war.

Nelson and others, including Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin, are calling for expanded U.S. government oversight and fiscal intervention “to revitalize the United States shipbuilding and commercial maritime industries” (Baldwin press release). Moreover, Baldwin has introduced a bipartisan, common-sense bill to rescue U.S. shipbuilding and get the needed ships out of dry dock. Nelson and Baldwin once again show they are can-do political leaders with big ideas. Too bad Nelson is not the junior senator. Wisconsin and the nation lost a unique opportunity in 2022.

But we are not done with Nelson. He has a new book coming out in September: “The Green and Gold Standard: A People’s History of the Green Bay Packers,” with a foreword by the legendary Green Bay Packers President and CEO Bob Harlan. It’s a book about the only sports team owned by its fans. Reminds us what can unite Americans despite all our differences. It’s all about common ground – and having fun.

Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.