{"id":191986,"date":"2026-08-17T15:41:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/191986\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T15:41:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:41:22","slug":"families-of-troops-stranded-on-uss-lincoln-slam-trump-and-hegseth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/191986\/","title":{"rendered":"Families of troops stranded on USS Lincoln slam Trump and Hegseth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Family members of the military personnel who have been left to languish on the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier<\/a> off the coast of Iran are irate at President Donald Trump and his unqualified Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying the two men\u2019s callous comments about the suffering of the service members are beyond the pale.<\/p>\n

Both Trump and Hegseth denied<\/a> widespread reports that the troops aboard the ship are facing<\/a> a lack of proper nutrition, working toilets, and declining mental health due to their historically long deployment. The two have also had the audacity to say that the troops haven\u2019t been deployed long enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in a United States where you have to be very respectful of the military, as they\u2019re making the ultimate sacrifice and protecting their country, and now you have the commander-in-chief and defense secretary dismissing their experiences and calling them liars. I\u2019m really angry,\u201d the sister of a crew member aboard the ship, who declined to give her name due to fear of retribution for her brother, told<\/a> The Guardian. \u201cIt\u2019s a feeling of betrayal. These are frustrating, false and careless comments, and they are going to have a lot of consequences for my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mother of another young sailor on the ship echoed those sentiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son signed up to serve his country. But why isn\u2019t his country serving him? They are not feeding him or supplying clean water, and living conditions are horrible. He didn\u2019t sign up for that,\u201d she told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

Karen Bramlett, the grandmother of a service member aboard the ship, also was aghast at Trump\u2019s dismissal of her grandson\u2019s suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump needs to be ashamed of himself to let them suffer the way that they\u2019re doing,\u201d Bramlett told<\/a> NPR. \u201cThey\u2019re over there fighting for our country. And this is the thanks they get? They can\u2019t even get help from him or his administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump and Hegseth have denied the poor conditions, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, visited the aircraft carrier on Saturday to assess the situation for himself, and acknowledged there were problems related to improper food supply and hot water. But Cooper said those issues were raised \u201cmonths ago\u201d and have been addressed\u2014which also contradicts the reports from the family of troops on the ship.<\/p>\n

\"DefenseDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth, shown on Aug. 3.AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I found aboard the Lincoln is that many elements of those stories are old news,\u201c Cooper said<\/a> in a statement after his visit.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the reports of the poor treatment of the troops forced to wage Trump\u2019s ill-planned war in Iran are unlikely to help Trump and the GOP, who face serious midterm peril<\/a> over the public\u2019s disapproval of the conflict<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Already, the vast majority of Americans have said the war has not been worth it<\/a>. After all, it has spiked prices<\/a> here at home and has gone on months longer<\/a> than Trump said it would<\/a>. The president also continues to struggle<\/a> to come up with an exit strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reports that the war is now negatively impacting Americans\u2019 safety due to military readiness and a lack of munitions<\/a> will surely sour the public\u2019s views on the war even further.<\/p>\n

While the war has not impacted military recruitment so far, Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said the poor treatment of service members could lead to declining troop levels down the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really goes to the deep, deep, deep problem here is that this administration did not plan for this war, did not plan how to get out of this war, did not really understand how this war was going to escalate,\u201d Gallego said<\/a> Sunday in an appearance on ABC News\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallego added, \u201cWhen they get back to home, when they start having that conversation with their wife or with their husband\u2014is it worth rejoining? They\u2019re going to have to think twice because look at how this leadership is treating them, and that again is \u2026 a true lack of leadership from [the] secretary of defense as well as the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sign up for our daily top stories newsletter so you don’t miss how it’s being used\u2014and what comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family members of the military personnel who have been left to languish on the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[120],"tags":[6401,6404,50,18,23320,86063],"class_list":["post-191986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pete-hegseth","tag-iranwar","tag-donaldtrump","tag-news","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-petehegseth","tag-usslincoln"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117111612120005789","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}