WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll that the record-setting uninterrupted time at sea is having on American sailors deployed to the Middle East stationed on the USS Abraham Lincoln as Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the aircraft carrier.
The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran , and several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment before being elected, took to social media to criticize Trump’s comments, saying on X that “President Trump does not care about our servicemembers or their families. the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war While hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks. The official would not say whether it was being considered a suicide attempt.
In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment’s length and even said that the more than 260-day deployment is “not nearly long enough.
“That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump said when asked about the lengthy deployment. Hegseth said that the U.S. military can maintain the blockage of Iranian ports “indefinitely. After reports emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns, the Navy said it has “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship,” though officials have declined to provide data, citing operational security and patient privacy concerns. A Navy official said that a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August but that the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care.
Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the carrier, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were “completely misrepresented.
