NORFOLK

President Trump will be in Virginia this weekend.

The GOP president will preside over the commissioning of the nation’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, on Saturday, July 22, during a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk.

The president previously criticized some of the new technology on the USS Ford because of cost overruns and delays, telling Time magazine earlier this year that the Navy should go back to using steam catapults to launch fighter jets because the new system “costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.”

The ship is the first of the Navy’s new and advanced Ford class of aircraft carrier. The USS Ford will go through various tests and workups at sea before becoming operational in the next few years.