Trump dismisses concerns from families about grim conditions aboard USS Lincoln

Add to Google Trump downplays concerns about living conditions on aircraft carrier 01:33 Get more news on Share Add to Google Aug. 14, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT / Updated Aug. 14, 2026, 2:50 PM EDT By Julie Tsirkin , Rebecca Shabad and Mosheh Gains President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed concerns from families of service members about the grim conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose deployment had been overextended in the Middle East due to the Iran war.

In interviews with NBC News and other outlets , family members of some of the thousands of people aboard the ship have described a lack of supplies and food and an overall deteriorating mental health situation with multiple sailors having attempted to jump overboard.

NBC News asked Trump, who was speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, whether the deployments have gone on for too long and whether he’s worried about troops’ mental health.

Danielle Rappa, whose son has been deployed on the ship, told NBC News that the situation was like a “scene out of the ‘American Horror Story,’ where ... everybody’s dead, but they don’t know it yet.” She said that she had noticed a change in his mood as his deployment dragged on. “Where he had been very positive, he started getting very dark,” she said.

Add to Google Parent says son feels a sense of ‘powerlessness’ aboard USS Abraham Lincoln 04:16 Trump also told reporters Friday that the Lincoln is “moving right now or very shortly” and that “it’s being replaced with another very similar ship.” The USS George Washington is expected to replace the Lincoln in the Middle East, a U.S. official told NBC News.

Melanie Stowe, whose daughter is serving aboard the Lincoln, said that the “deployment date keeps getting moved up, and then it gets moved back, and it gets moved up.”

Both Stowe and Rappa said their children have told them about a fellow sailor jumping overboard. A U.S. official said Thursday that a sailor assigned to the Lincoln’s air wing went overboard in early August and was quickly rescued and treated. That sailor was transferred off the ship for further medical care, the official said.

U.S. military leaders have been privately raising concerns inside the Pentagon and the White House about low morale and widespread fatigue among American service members who’ve been deployed for months to support the war with Iran, two U.S. officials said.

More than 50,000 troops have been deployed to support the U.S.- and Israel-led war with Iran.

A typical deployment for a carrier is roughly six to seven months and includes regular stops at ports to refresh and replenish food supplies. Aboard the Lincoln, the circumstances for the 5,000 sailors and Marines have become particularly troubling, according to U.S. officials.

The last port visit was in Guam in December — the vessel has been at sea for 244 consecutive days.

Fewer stops at ports have led to a limited amount of supplies and fresh food on the ships, and service members and their families have pointed to these worsening living conditions aboard the Lincoln.

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