President Donald Trump on Friday angrily snapped back at reporters who asked him to weigh in on reports that morale aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln is so poor that some sailors have attempted to jump overboard to escape the ship after nine months at sea.
The president was bragging to reporters about a purported drop in prescription drug prices before boarding Air Force One when he was asked to respond to the concerns of sailors’ family members who have reported receiving disturbing texts from loved ones about deteriorating conditions aboard the Nimitz-class ship.
After a reporter mentioned that sailors’ family members are worried about the state of the crew and their supplies after nearly a year stationed in the Gulf region, Trump cut off the journalist with a curt reply.
“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,” he added.
The president’s sharp denial of any concerns among the families of sailors aboard the Lincoln came just a day after MeidasTouch reported on text messages in which one sailor, whose identity has been kept secret for their protection, said the ship has had no resupply of perishables such as milk in some time because because “the supply ship that comes here can’t bring fruits and stuff cause it can’t stay fresh long enough with the time it gets them to get here.”
“We haven’t had anything fresh but meat cause it’s freezed. Sometimes it gets here rotten,” the sailor reportedly said in the text messages, which have not been reviewed by The Independent.
The same sailor also noted in a separate text that one of his shipmates has argued that the extended deployment, which was supposed to conclude in May but has been repeatedly extended amid the war Trump started with Iran at the end of February could be “an experiment the government is doing to see how far they can push sailors limits of being out to sea with the worst experience.”
Separately, families of crew members told Military Times that sailors have become so desperate after nine months in the Gulf region that some have simply jumped overboard from the massive ship.
Annabelle Loma, the wife of one such sailor, said her husband is now on a “medical hold” after trying to jump overboard.
“He’s scared,” Loma said. “He thinks he’ll get a dishonorable discharge and, just because he was burnt out, his 13-year career is ruined, just like that.”
Loma added that she is trying to put on a “happy face” for her children but that she feels like she could “break down” every day.
A Navy spokesperson told The Independent that the ship’s command has “not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship.”
Asked about the texts, the official told The Independent: “Lincoln is operating in a highly-contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions.
“In response, leadership prioritized mission-critical supplies: first food, then hygiene items, then mail. Current reports from the ship confirm continuous access to clean water, functional AC, and healthy meal options.”
In a statement on Friday, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said “the media are trying to paint our warriors as victims.”
Sailors “crushed their deployment and will return home soon as part of a planned rotation,” he added. “Details will come but let me be clear: the safety and security of our Sailors and Marines always comes first.”
He added that “there is no question our young men and women have been pushed to their limits — but they have never broken.”
“They are rightly tired — but have never been out of the fight. However, it is clear, knowing the whole story, our force and their families are not victims,” according to Cao. “They are the epitome of American strength and resilience.”
On the question of morale, the official said: “We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship. We take every service member’s well-being seriously and have religious, medical and mental health professionals available to assess and address concerns as they arise.
“Sailors go through normal transitions throughout a deployment cycle. Adapting to life at sea can be difficult, so we’ve learned how to provide resources and help Sailors with these transitions. We are not experiencing an uptick in mental health issues aboard Abraham Lincoln.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also flatly denied the reports of low morale and poor conditions, telling reporters in Panama that the families concerns had been “completely misrepresented” by the press.
“We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody,” he said.
When asked about the situation aboard the ship, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly used a Friday appearance on Fox News to claim that Trump “cares about the troops more than anybody” and to attack Trump’s predecessor, former president Joe Biden, on the grounds that the military had promoted too many undeserving women and racial minorities.
“Remember Joe Biden shifted the focus away from warfighters and onto woke DEI policies,”she said.
The Lincoln is now scheduled to be relieved by another Nimitz-class carrier, the U.S.S. George Washington, which is currently in transit from a prior assignment in Southeast Asia.
Since the start of Trump’s second term, American aircraft carriers have been sent on a series of record-length deployments that have tested the limits of crew and equipment endurance and upended years of careful planning regarding the rotation of the country’s eleven active nuclear-powered carriers.
In May, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford returned to Norfolk Naval Station after a deployment that spanned just under a year at 326 days, besting the 341-day record set by the U.S.S. Nimitz during a 2020-2021 deployment that was impacted by Covid-19 pandemic-era isolation protocols.
The previous record for a U.S. Navy deployment in the post-Vietnam era had been set by the U.S.S. New Jersey, an Iowa-class battleship, during a 332-day deployment that started as a post-recommissioning shakedown cruise but was extended so the battleship’s 16-inch guns could be used to support U.S. Marines deployed to Beirut as part of a multinational force.
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