President Donald Trump waved off concerns about the strain on sailors who have spent nearly nine months at sea aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, calling the deployment ‘not nearly long enough’ and insisting he will never apologize for the Iran war’s effect on oil prices.
Trump made the remarks on Friday during a brief exchange with reporters before departing for an event in New York meant to highlight falling violent crime rates across the country. He rejected assertions from family members who have raised concerns about the deployment’s length, which included an uninterrupted stretch at sea of more than 240 days, a record.
When asked about the deployment’s duration, Trump said, ‘That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship.’ He added that the deployment is ‘not nearly long enough.’
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said in a social media post on Friday that the Lincoln ‘will return home soon.’
Trump began his second term vowing to avoid costly, lengthy military entanglements. After launching the war against Iran alongside Israel, he and his advisers said the fighting would last only weeks. The conflict is now more than five months old.
At his Friday address in Garden City, New York, Trump acknowledged that he has used the U.S. military ‘a little bit more than I wanted to,’ while insisting the operation against Iran is succeeding. He also mused, seemingly in jest, ‘pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.’
He then said of the war and its effect on oil prices, ‘I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing.’
The extended carrier deployments during the Iran conflict have heightened concerns about the mental health and supply problems facing crew members, as well as the growing strain on the ships and their equipment.
Several Democrats, including Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, are pressing the Pentagon for answers about the conditions on the Lincoln. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that reports about those conditions were ‘completely misrepresented.’
Representative Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat and former soldier who completed three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment, jumped on social media to condemn Trump’s comments. ‘President Trump does not care about our servicemembers or their families,’ he wrote on X.
Top Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have requested a classified briefing on the ship’s food inventory, sanitation problems, and availability of healthcare, along with an assessment of how much longer the carrier will remain deployed before relief arrives.
Republicans have been far less vocal about the state of the Lincoln. The GOP chairmen of the House and Senate armed services committees did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Though confrontations between the U.S. and Iran have eased in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The Trump administration has not explained how it plans to end the war. Hegseth said the military can maintain the blockade ‘indefinitely.’
Another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week and is expected to replace the Lincoln, which is one of two carriers currently in the Middle East.
After reports emerged that sailors aboard the Lincoln are facing mental health difficulties, the Navy said it has ‘not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship.’ Officials have refused to release supporting data, citing operational security and patient privacy.
According to a Navy official, a sailor on the Lincoln went overboard in early August but was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department, and moved off the vessel for further care. The official would not comment on whether the incident is being handled as a suicide attempt.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, has also pushed back on reports about poor conditions aboard the carrier.
