Trump Gives Stunning Response to His Sailors’ Hellish Ordeal

Politics admin August 14, 2026 0 Comments

Trump Gives Stunning Response to His Sailors’ Hellish Ordeal

Donald Trump had a stunningly dismissive message for the families of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln who have raised alarms about their loved ones’ deteriorating conditions.

After almost nine months at sea, the plight of sailors on the carrier has become more grim, with claims of multiple sailors attempting to go overboard and reports of broken toilets, moldy showers and inadequate food.

But asked on Friday whether family members were concerned about conditions on the ship, Trump replied, “No, they’re not.”

Then came the question of whether the deployment had gone on too long.

“No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” he said, before walking off to board Air Force One on a trip to New York.

The dismissive response came as Lincoln finds itself at the center of a growing political storm over the human cost of the Trump administration’s war with Iran.

About 200 relatives attended a town hall last week with Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao and other senior military officials, raising concerns about exhaustion, mental health, food and water shortages, plumbing problems, sanitation and disrupted mail.

A pair of military outlets—the Stars and Stripes and the Navy Times—report that several sailors have attempted to go overboard or have gone overboard on the Lincoln, with one sailor reportedly in the water for an hour before being rescued.

Loved ones shared texts with MeidasTouch claiming the ship can’t get any fresh food, and that even some once-frozen meat arrives rotten. A sailor’s family member also told MS NOW that their loved one has been eating “half a cup of rice and two tortillas” a day.

Family members have also described out-of-service toilets and laundry rooms that have been inaccessible for weeks.

The carrier has been at sea for eight-and-a-half months, much longer than the typical deployment of about six months.

But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has brushed off the reports as “misrepresented,” while the Navy disputes some of the most serious allegations, saying it has not seen an increase in suicidal ideation and that mental-health resources remain available.

“We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,“ Hegseth told reporters during a visit to Panama.

“Some deployments are longer than others, and ⁠I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere conditions with less port calls—it’s incredible.”

Trump on Friday also appeared to confirm reports that the Lincoln was now being relieved of duty by the carrier USS George Washington.

“That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Democrats are demanding answers. “These reports warrant immediate attention,” said Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal in a letter to Hegseth and Cao.

“But they also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force, particularly as this Administration repeatedly commits U.S. forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations.”