Trump on Long-Suffering Sailors: “Not Nearly Long Enough”
Slate · L · trust 58/100
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Donald Trump’s war with Iran has been fought largely from the air, with U.S. warplanes dropping bombs and missiles on targets across the country. But those planes have to take off and land somewhere, and that somewhere has often been American aircraft carriers stationed off the coast. The war, which Trump said would last around four or five weeks but which is now going on six months, has taken a toll on those carriers and their crews. Conditions have reportedly gotten particularly dire aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln , which has been at sea since last year.
The Lincoln , normally based in San Diego, set sail in November for a routine deployment to the Pacific. But it got rerouted to the Middle East shortly before Trump attacked Iran, and has been there ever since. Besides defending against Iranian missile and drone attacks, the carrier’s roughly 5,000 sailors and other service members have complained of food rationing, water shortages, nonworking toilets, and moldy showers , as well as spotty access to mail, laundry, basic hygiene products, and the ability to communicate with their families. USA Today published a photo earlier this year of a sailor’s mostly empty lunch tray , which included a few chunks of boiled carrot and processed meat of an indeterminate nature.
That’s obviously gross and unpleasant. But is anything more serious happening?
Unfortunately, yes. The Lincoln ’s extended deployment, already about three months longer than the typical carrier mission, appears to have tanked sailors’ morale. The crew’s mental health is suffering, and some have apparently attempted suicide. In at least two instances, crew members reportedly tried to jump overboard . In another case last week, a sailor jumped off the ship and spent about an hour in the water before he was rescued and medically evacuated from the Lincoln . That sailor’s wife, who described her husband’s act as a suicide attempt to MS NOW, shared text messages in which he’d previously expressed feelings of hopelessness and said he’d gone to his superiors for help but was rebuffed.
That’s awful. How has the Trump administration responded to these reports?
They’ve largely denied them. Pete Hegseth, Trump’s truculent secretary of defense, called the reports “completely misrepresented,” adding that he has “more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody.” And despite published evidence to the contrary, Navy officials say they haven’t “identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship,” even though they’re reportedly working to send more mental health professionals aboard.
That response has upset some whose loved ones serve on the Lincoln . According to MS NOW, a Navy official said during a town hall with about 200 family members in San Diego last week that it was unclear if the sailor who went overboard had jumped or simply fallen, angering attendees. Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, have pressed Hegseth and other Trump officials over the reports. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a veteran of the Marines, wants a bipartisan delegation to visit the Lincoln . Trump, asked today if he was worried about the conditions aboard and whether the ship had been deployed for too long, said, “ Not nearly long enough .”
U.S. troops are routinely asked to face dangerous and adverse circumstances. How is this different?
Service members certainly sign up to serve their country, often under difficult conditions and sometimes in ways that take them away from their families and put their lives at risk. But what’s happening aboard the Lincoln is also highly unusual. Carriers typically stop in port every 30 to 45 days for reprovisioning, repairs, and crew rest. The Lincoln has docked just twice since it left San Diego, and its crew has sometimes supported nonstop combat operations for weeks straight. In this case, it isn’t an adversary that’s making things hard; it’s the military’s own conditions and, arguably, an administration that failed to anticipate an extended conflict. For a president who boasts about having “ rebuilt the military ” and a defense secretary who pledges to prioritize “ the needs of the warfighter ,” the contrast is pretty glaring. And at the end of the day, as people who’ve served have told me, being in the military is a job. How would you feel if your office had backed-up toilets, terrible food, and virtually no days off?
That’s fair. So is there any relief in sight?
The Navy is reportedly dispatching another carrier, the USS George Washington , to replace the Lincoln . Administration officials say the rotation was prescheduled , but the timing is hard to ignore. Still, CBS News reports that it could be weeks before the Lincoln returns to San Diego.
Overtaxed crews can be a problem even outside of wartime. The USS Gerald R. Ford suffered plumbing issues, low morale , and a laundry-room fire that injured multiple sailors during an extended deployment to the Caribbean and the Middle East that mostly preceded Trump’s Iran war. But wars inevitably cost those who fight in them; ideally, the commander in chief would start them only after carefully weighing those costs. Instead, Trump launched this war capriciously, with vague strategic aims and apparently without understanding its potential to become a quagmire. So even after the Lincoln ’s crew sails home, we might soon be reading similar stories about a different ship named after a president—even as the man who currently occupies Washington, Lincoln, and Ford’s former office tries to wash his hands of it all.
I realize that’s a heavy way to wrap up the week, so let’s shift gears. To get your weekend off to a fun start, my colleagues recommend:
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