WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump dismissed claims that families of sailors serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln are concerned about conditions aboard the vessel, even as reports of suicide attempts and declining morale have surfaced amid an extended deployment. When asked by a reporter on August 14 about these family concerns, Trump replied, “Well, no, that ship is moving. No, they’re not.”
When further questioned whether the deployment of the ship’s 5,000 sailors had lasted too long given the ongoing war in Iran, the President responded, “No, not nearly long enough.” These remarks followed investigative reporting by the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, which detailed exhaustion, a sharp decline in morale, and suicide attempts among the crew.
The 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the Lincoln have been at sea since November 2025, supporting U.S. operations in Iran for the past eight months. Their deployment was originally anticipated to end in May, but no date has since been set for their return, with no end in sight to the war.
Trump confirmed that the USS George Washington is heading to the region to replace the Lincoln, though U.S. officials have characterized the move as part of a previously planned rotation. “That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One for a trip to New York.
The conditions on the ship have also drawn scrutiny from Congress. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, in an Aug. 12 letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, cited “widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months.”
Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued that these reports “warrant immediate attention” and raise significant questions regarding whether the Navy can “sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week defended the conditions on the Lincoln, arguing that the media reports “completely misrepresented” the reality. “We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” Hegseth told reporters in Panama on Aug. 13. “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.”
14 in a response to a reporter who began a question by stating families are concerned about the conditions on the USS Lincoln.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.