WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll on American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea on the USS Abraham Lincoln as concerns escalated about mental health and supply issues aboard the aircraft carrier supporting U.S. operations against Iran. 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 deployment -- which includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days -- 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. The acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, said the Lincoln “will return home soon” in a social media post on Friday. Trump strode into office for a second term vowing to avoid lengthy and expensive military entanglements. And after launching the Iran war, alongside Israel, Trump and his advisers said the conflict would last a matter of weeks. The war is now more than five months old. But on Friday, during his crime address in Garden City, New York, he acknowledged that he’s used the U.S. military “a little bit more than I wanted to,” while asserting anew that the U.S. operation against Iran is going well. He even said, seemingly in jest, that “pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” “I’ll never apologize,” Trump added about the war and its impact on oil prices. “I did the right thing.” Democrats demand Pentagon briefing on USS Lincoln Extended deployments of carriers during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as the increasing strain on the ships and their equipment. Several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the Lincoln, which U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were “completely misrepresented.” 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.” Top Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have requested a classified briefing on the ship’s food inventory, sanitation issues and healthcare availability, as well as an assessment of how much longer it would be deployed before relief arrives. Republicans have been less outspoken about the situation on the Lincoln. The GOP chairmen of the House and Senate armed services committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the U.S. 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. Hegseth said the U.S. military can maintain the blockage of Iranian ports “indefinitely.” Another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, and is expected to replace the USS Lincoln, one of two aircraft carriers currently deployed in the Middle East. After reports emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns, the U.S. 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 U.S. navy official said a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August but the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say whether it was being considered a suicide attempt. U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, has also pushed back on reports about poor conditions. ___ AP writers Collin Binkley in Garden City, New York, and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report. Konstantin Toropin And Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press
