Family members of the military personnel who have been left to languish on the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier off the coast of Iran are irate at President Donald Trump and his unqualified Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying the two men’s callous comments about the suffering of the service members are beyond the pale.
Both Trump and Hegseth denied widespread reports that the troops aboard the ship are facing 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’t been deployed long enough.
“I grew up in a United States where you have to be very respectful of the military, as they’re 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’m really angry,” the sister of a crew member aboard the ship, who declined to give her name due to fear of retribution for her brother, told The Guardian. “It’s a feeling of betrayal. These are frustrating, false and careless comments, and they are going to have a lot of consequences for my brother.”
A mother of another young sailor on the ship echoed those sentiments.
“My son signed up to serve his country. But why isn’t his country serving him? They are not feeding him or supplying clean water, and living conditions are horrible. He didn’t sign up for that,” she told the Guardian.
Karen Bramlett, the grandmother of a service member aboard the ship, also was aghast at Trump’s dismissal of her grandson’s suffering.
“Donald Trump needs to be ashamed of himself to let them suffer the way that they’re doing,” Bramlett told NPR. “They’re over there fighting for our country. And this is the thanks they get? They can’t even get help from him or his administration.”
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 “months ago” and have been addressed—which also contradicts the reports from the family of troops on the ship.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, shown on Aug. 3.AP“What I found aboard the Lincoln is that many elements of those stories are old news,“ Cooper said in a statement after his visit.
Ultimately, the reports of the poor treatment of the troops forced to wage Trump’s ill-planned war in Iran are unlikely to help Trump and the GOP, who face serious midterm peril over the public’s disapproval of the conflict.
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