{"id":863,"date":"2026-08-17T15:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=863"},"modified":"2026-08-17T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:09:18","slug":"trumps-loose-grip-on-reality-could-sink-the-navys-ships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=863","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Loose Grip on Reality Could Sink the Navy\u2019s Ships"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In July, a parent whose son was serving on the Navy ship USS Abraham Lincoln<\/em> wrote an alarmed letter to Stars and Stripes,<\/em> expressing worry that the dire conditions being reported from aboard the ship were harming sailors. The Abraham Lincoln<\/em> has been deployed in the Middle East since last November and has seen combat in the Iran War. It was scheduled to return home in May, but its mission has been indefinitely extended. \u201cMy son is currently on that ship and listening to him say that he and his shipmates constantly think about jumping off the ship just for relief is so hard to listen to,\u201d the letter read. The writer added, \u201cOur loved ones are out there fighting with no understanding as to what they\u2019re defending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more From Urban Housing to Rural Nursing Homes, the Working-Class Fight to Protect Public Goods From Private Buyers<\/a><\/p>\n

The anxiety expressed in that letter was well grounded. Since then, reports from two publications that are well sourced with the Pentagon\u2014Stars and Stripes<\/em> and The Navy Times<\/em>\u2014have made clear that there have been multiple suicide attempts aboard the Lincoln<\/em>. While the Navy denies that there is a widespread mental health crisis on the Lincoln<\/em>, the families of sailors, as well as political leaders, have begun to loudly decry the distressing conditions aboard the ship.<\/p>\n

On August 8, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, complaining, \u201cThere have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The roots of the critical situation aboard the Lincoln<\/em> go back to poor military planning by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth in the run-up to the Iran disaster. They had assumed that overwhelming US airpower would lead to a quick victory, comparable to the coup the US was able to pull off in Venezuela in January. This scenario radically underestimated the resilience and capability of the Iranian government.<\/p>\n

As The New York Times<\/em> reports,<\/p>\n

\n

The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln\u2019s supply problems began soon after the first day of the war, as Iranian missiles and attack drones fell on a Navy base in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

The Iranian attack, retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assault on Tehran, destroyed much of the base. And as it went up in smoke, so did a major logistics hub that the Navy has relied on for decades.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Iran had, in fact, destroyed or severely compromised US military bases all over the Middle East, not just in Bahrain but also in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. This meant the sailors on the Lincoln<\/em> had to receive food from farther away and had no easy access to shore leave.<\/p>\n

While the supply chain issue has been slowly mended, for a time it meant a rapid deterioration in living conditions. Even a CNN report that tried to minimize the problems acknowledged that there was \u201ca dearth of fresh food for many months. For a stretch\u2026their meals were reduced to tuna mixed with noodles, or corn dogs. Several described losing significant weight.\u201d Other problems included black mold that would drip on the sailors, extended periods without laundry, and backed-up toilets spewing human waste.<\/p>\n

Even more demoralizing than these physical problems was the psychological toll of an interminable mission with no clear end goal or purpose. As one sailor told CNN reporter Pamela Brown:<\/p>\n

Read more The Dignifying Solution to America\u2019s Care Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

At first when we learned that we would be doing combat operations it was intended to be a 2 week thing. But unfortunately that became a 7 month thing.\u2026 They told us it was to help Iranian protesters, then they told us we are out here to denuclearize Iran, now it\u2019s to support a blockade. The purpose of even doing this is inconsistent\u2026. This is a big let down with consistent extensions that affects our loved ones who have their lives on hold until we return.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Trump administration and its media outriders have decided that the best way to handle this scandal is to add insult to injury.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Trump was asked by a reporter if the deployment has gone on too long. The president replied, \u201cNo. Not nearly long enough.\u201d He denied that the families of service members were concerned about conditions aboard the ship. He did say that the Lincoln<\/em> was \u201cmoving\u201d and was about to be replaced by a \u201cvery similar\u201d ship. A Pentagon spokesperson claimed, \u201cLegitimate challenges of a long combat deployment are being twisted into a false narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

More bluntly, Fox News host Joey Jones dismissed complaining sailors as whiny crybabies. \u201cHow weak are you?\u201d he asked. He added that \u201cif this is who we are, we\u2019re just Rome sitting here waiting to burn. We\u2019ve got nothing left. It makes me fume.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crisis on the Lincoln<\/em> is one of Trump\u2019s own making. It\u2019s a result of his deeply irresponsible handling of military affairs. Trump is an overgrown man-child who should be confined to playing with toy soldiers and model ships. Unfortunately, he\u2019s in charge of a military with real soldiers who can bleed, die, and also kill.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s childish mentality was on display near the end of his first term in 2020, when he called for the Navy to redesign its ships to be more aesthetically pleasing. He claimed he told naval commanders, \u201cThat\u2019s a terrible-looking ship, let\u2019s make it beautiful.\u201d Trump added, \u201cThe U.S. Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I\u2019m a very aesthetic person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six years later, Trump has lost neither his kitschy sensibility\u2014borne out in his destructive \u201crenovations\u201d of the White House and the Kennedy Center\u2014nor his desire to remake the Navy. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported that \u201cTrump has directed the Navy to tear out a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers and instead go back to using steam catapults, a move Navy officials have fought for years and will likely cost billions of dollars.\u201d And on Saturday, The Washington Post<\/em> noted, \u201cThe U.S. Navy is considering a major redesign of its new aircraft carriers to better match President Donald Trump\u2019s preferred aesthetic for the warships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is alarmingly detached from reality. He has no concern for the flesh-and-blood sailors who serve in his Navy, much less the countless civilians killed in his imperialist wars. His main concern is visual display: having cool World War II\u2013style aircraft carriers that can make aesthetically pleasing explosions. During the Second World War, a famous poster warned of the dangers of idle chatter that could empower the enemy: LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS. With Trump, we can update the slogan to warn: A LOOSE GRIP ON REALITY SINKS SHIPS.<\/p>\n

Read more This Week in \u2018Nation\u2019 History: The Horrific Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s Loose Grip on Reality Could Sink the Navy\u2019s Ships - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=863\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s Loose Grip on Reality Could Sink the Navy\u2019s Ships - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=863\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T15:09:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=863#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=863\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Trump\u2019s Loose Grip on Reality Could Sink the Navy\u2019s Ships\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-17T15:09:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=863\"},\"wordCount\":1199,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=863#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/d586f5c31c79356344152c2673e6e162.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=863#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=863\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=863\",\"name\":\"Trump\u2019s Loose Grip on Reality Could Sink the Navy\u2019s Ships - 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