Story highlights Trump has called for a $84 billion increase in military spending

He made his case aboard a soon-to-be commissioned Navy aircraft carrier

Newport News, Virginia (CNN) President Donald Trump stood aboard a soon-to-be commissioned Navy aircraft carrier Thursday and touted his calls for a multi-billion dollar military investment, promising a "great rebuilding of our military might."

Donning a Navy cap and jacket emblazoned with the USS Gerald R. Ford's emblem, Trump told an audience of Navy sailors and civilian shipbuilders that a military buildup is both a way to prevent wars and, if necessary, win them.

"Hopefully it's power we don't have to use. But if we do, they're in big trouble," Trump said, speaking from the hangar bay of the newly built USS Gerald R. Ford, where a poster reading "100,000 tons of diplomacy" hangs on the wall.

The President said his planned $84 billion increase in the defense budget he has called for over the next two years would be "one of the largest spending increases in US history" and would result in a "major expansion of our entire Navy fleet."

Trump's first budget proposal will look to increase defense and security spending by $54 billion. In addition to the 2018 increase, Trump will also seek a $30 billion in supplemental defense money for the fiscal year 2017, including some funding for the planned US-Mexico border wall, a senior administration official told CNN.

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