President Trump with a big announcement about the U.S. military. The lead starts right now.

The president and top Pentagon brass reportedly about to announce the U.S. Navy will build more battleships,

ships the president may want to name after himself. This is the U.S. ramps up aggressive action to seize oil tankers near

Venezuela. More on the breaking details just coming in. Plus, survivors speak out. Women

abused at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein to cry the actions of the Justice Department related

to how it's handled the release of the Epstein files. One of those survivors joins the lead this hour.

And...

How long did it take you?

Five days, four nights.

Five days, four nights, walking through the mountains.

Yeah, yeah, three big mountain.

CNN's Clarissa Ward with an incredible look at the lengths some Ukrainian men are going to escape fighting against Vladimir Putin's army.

Welcome to lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper. We start in our world lead. In just moments, President Trump is expected to announce new U.S. warship building efforts from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. He'll be flanked by his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hengseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others. Now, Trump has discussed calling the updated U.S. naval fleet the Trump class.

This comes as Trump's new quest to blockade sanctioned oil tankers heading to or from Venezuela

escalates.

Right now, the U.S. military is actively chasing an oil tanker that was sailing toward Venezuela on Sunday.

The empty ship is under U.S. sanctions for links to Iranian oil and

kept sailing after the U.S. Coast Guard initially tried to intercept it. The Bella 1 is the third

tanker targeted by the U.S. The first, called the Skipper, was intercepted. On December 10th,

that one was also under U.S. sanctions for Iranian ties. But the second ship, called the centuries, wasn't under any U.S. sanctions, though the White

House insists the two million barrels of crude oil on board were, in fact, under sanctions.

Joining us now, CNN senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes.

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