WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump denied that family members of sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln ‒ now being replaced in the Middle East ‒ have concerns about the ship after reports of suicide attempts and declining moral amid extended deployment.

“Well, no, that ship is moving. No, they’re not,” Trump said on Aug. 14 in a response to a reporter who began a question by stating families are concerned about the conditions on the USS Lincoln.

Asked whether the deployment of the ship’s sailors has gone too long amid the war in Iran, Trump responded: “No, not nearly long enough.”

Trump’s remarks came after two military-focused outlets, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, this week reported on suicide attempts aboard the ship, exhaustion among the crew of 5,000 sailors and sharply declining morale.

Trump confirmed another ship, the USS George Washington, is heading to the region to replace the USS Lincoln, though U.S. officials have said the move is part of a previously planned rotation.

“That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump told reporters before the president boarded Air Force One for a trip to New York.

The 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the Lincoln have been at sea since November 2025 and have supported the U.S. war in Iran for the past eight months. Their deployment was originally anticipated to end in May, but no date has since been set for their return, with no end in sight to the war.

Sen. Richard Blumental, D-Connecticut, in an Aug. 12 letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the Lincoln’s conditions, cited “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.”

Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the reports “warrant immediate attention” and raise questions whether the Navy can “sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week defended the conditions on the Lincoln, arguing the reports “completely misrepresented” the reality.

“We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” Hegesth told reporters in Panama on Aug. 13. “Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere conditions with less port calls — it’s incredible.”

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.