Donald Trump dismissed growing concerns about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, despite a wave of alarming accounts from families describing exhausted sailors, collapsing morale and attempts to go overboard during an unusually long deployment tied to the Iran war. The aircraft carrier, carrying more than 5,000 sailors and Marines, has been at sea for more than 250 days since leaving San Diego last November after being diverted to support operations against Iran. Navy families have told Navy Times that some crew members are struggling with severe burnout and suicidal thoughts, including one sailor’s wife who said her husband tried to jump overboard. On August 3, a sailor assigned to the carrier’s air wing entered rough seas while wearing a life vest in what the Navy later characterized as a mental health episode, CNN reported. A search-and-rescue helicopter recovered him within an hour.
When asked about fears raised by military families over life aboard the carrier, Trump rejected the premise outright. “Well, no, that ship is moving. No, they’re not,” he said. “That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” the president added. The USS George Washington is currently heading toward the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, in what officials say was a previously scheduled carrier swap. Pressed on whether the Lincoln’s deployment had stretched too long, Trump responded: “No. Not nearly long enough.”
Since the start of Trump’s war, reports have emerged of food shortages and rationing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, along with bleak photos said to show sailors’ meals. Frustrated relatives brought their concerns directly to Navy leaders in San Diego last Thursday, Stars and Stripes reported. One spouse reportedly said conditions were so dire that her husband texted her saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.” Another woman accused Navy officials of damaging the “trust between us and the leadership” by failing to be more open about the conditions their loved ones are facing at sea. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and other members of Congress are now seeking answers from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. Lawmakers are also pushing for a bipartisan congressional visit to the carrier, while Hegseth has dismissed the reports as a complete misrepresentation.
“Listen, we make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” Hegseth told Newsmax on Thursday. Eighteen US service members have been killed in Iranian strikes across the region since the war began in February, and hundreds more have been wounded. US Central Command has strongly disputed accounts of worsening conditions aboard the carrier, calling the reports “false” and saying the crew members “remain resilient and resolved.” Retired Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, now a professor at Syracuse University, told Newsweek that prolonged Navy deployments can contribute to a rise in mental health challenges among sailors.
A typical aircraft carrier deployment lasts about six months and usually includes port calls that allow crews to refuel, resupply and spend time ashore. Against the backdrop of the reported strain aboard the Lincoln, the wife of the sailor who jumped from the carrier told MS Now that she was not promptly informed about what had happened. She said her husband spent an hour in the water before being rescued after what she described as an attempt to take his own life. “I think that it was handled very poorly because they didn’t inform me and they didn’t want me to know, and they’re just trying to cover this up,” she said. She also shared what she said was her last text exchange with him on July 21, in which he wrote that life aboard the ship was wearing him down. “I’m really trying to not feel negative or hopeless but between the wifi and not knowing when I will come home and not knowing what is happening back at home, it’s really getting me,” he wrote, adding that he had been scheduled to leave on July 15 before that plan was canceled. “I don’t think I can do another deployment after this and i don’t even know if i can finish this deployment,” the sailor added.
