Trump Tells Nine-Month-Deployed Sailors Their Mission Hasn’t Been Nearly Long Enough

Nine months. That’s how long the sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have been at sea. Nine months away from their families, their kids, their beds. Nine months of food running thin and living conditions circling the drain and mental health concerns stacking up like shipping containers on a overloaded dock.

And what does the Commander-in-Chief have to say about it? That it hasn’t been “nearly long enough.”

I’m sorry. Nearly long enough for what, exactly? For sailors to start rationing their meals? For their families back home to start calling their congressmen in a panic because the letters coming off that boat don’t sound like the people they raised and married and miss every single day?

Shealeah Craighead (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Let me walk you through what’s actually happening on that ship, since the man who’s supposed to be in charge clearly hasn’t bothered to look. Food shortages. Deteriorating conditions. Morale in freefall. These are American service members, not extras in a reality show. They didn’t sign up to be told to suck it up by a guy who wouldn’t know the inside of a uniform if it came with a golf tee attached.

And then there’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Where’s Pete? According to Rep. Seth Moulton, a Marine who actually served four combat tours in Iraq, Hegseth has been “in the jungle filming promo videos when he should be aboard the Abraham Lincoln, understanding exactly what’s going on.” Promo videos. In the jungle. While American sailors are wondering if they’ll have enough to eat this week.

You can’t make this up. Well, you could, but nobody would believe you.

Moulton called the whole thing “typical of a draft dodger,” and I have to ask: is he wrong? This is a president who got five deferments during Vietnam, including one for bone spurs, and now he’s standing at a podium telling sailors who’ve been deployed longer than most people’s pregnancies that they just need to hang in there a little longer. The man wouldn’t walk up a ramp without someone holding his elbow, and he’s lecturing the Navy on endurance.

United States Navy Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Kittie VandenBosch (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

The families aren’t buying it. They’re telling reporters they feel “gaslit” by the administration’s dismissive attitude. That’s the word they’re using. Gaslit. Because when you’re sitting at home wondering if your son or daughter is okay and the president goes on television and says everything’s fine, the deployment’s not even that long, what else would you call it?

Here’s what I know. You don’t need a security clearance to see what’s happening here. You need eyes and a shred of decency. Sailors are stretched to the breaking point. The Secretary of Defense is off making content for social media. The president is patting himself on the back. And the people actually paying the price are twenty-somethings in uniform who can’t even get a straight answer about when they’re coming home.

Moulton’s running for Senate now, and good for him. But this shouldn’t take a Senate campaign to fix. This should take a president who picks up the phone, calls that ship, and says: “We’re bringing you home.” Instead, he’s telling them it hasn’t been long enough.

Nine months wasn’t long enough for Donald Trump to visit a war zone when he had the chance. But it’s plenty long enough for the people actually doing the work.