BREAKING NEWS: President Donald Trump on Monday called reports of deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln “fake” while clashing with a CNN reporter during a tense Oval Office exchange. When asked by reporter Kristen Holmes if there is enough food on the Lincoln, Trump responded, “There is. That was a fake CNN report. Over the years, we had them out there much longer. An admiral told me, ‘I have been on ships much longer than that, sir.’ And people on the Lincoln say it’s beautifully taken care of.” The spat occurred as the president honored a teenage lifeguard, Ryder Williams, who saved a 10-year-old boy off the California coast last month. Just before, as Holmes attempted to ask a question, he interjected and said, “Quiet! You’re very disrespectful in front of this young man.” He then asked 10-year-old Nathanial Rai, whom Williams saved, seated beside him, “Don’t you find her disrespectful?” When the reporter told Trump the news outlet that she worked for, the president exclaimed, “You’re fake news. Be quiet! You’re a fake reporter.”
A spokesperson for CNN told Newsweek that it stands by its reporting. Rapid Response 47, an official White House X account, shared the video of the interaction and shared a comment aimed directly at Holmes, saying, “Someday, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question. They will be sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive. It’s quite troubling.” CNN later posted a statement to X, saying, “Kristen Holmes is one of the most respected and accomplished journalists covering the White House. “This afternoon, she did her job and asked the President of the United States a tough, relevant, and newsworthy question on behalf of the American people. Public officials are free to challenge reporting they disagree with, but personal attacks on journalists for asking questions are beneath the office and inconsistent with the principles of a free press. We stand firmly behind Kristen and reject these attacks in the strongest possible terms,” the statement read.
Last week, Trump said that families of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were not concerned about the conditions, despite multiple reports from relatives and those on the ship. Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, the president was asked about the concerns over food and hygiene, after the ship surpassed 265 days at sea in the Middle East. “No, they’re not,” Trump said about families raising concerns, adding that the ship was moving and would be replaced by the USS George Washington. The Pentagon and Navy have pushed back on some of the claims. Alongside Trump’s remarks, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that reports about conditions on the carrier had been “completely misrepresented,” while Navy officials have stated they have not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship.
Families Express Concerns Over Ship Conditions
Those comments sparked anger from Ashley Rogers, the wife of a serving officer on the Lincoln, who told Newsweek on Friday that Trump and Hegseth were “disconnected from reality.” “I think that if either one of those people took the time to listen to the family members or the sailors on that ship, or the Marines that are stationed on that ship, they would absolutely hear a different story,” Rogers told Newsweek. “I don’t think that we can lie our way out of what is so glaringly obvious with this ship and that when you put somebody to sea for 260-plus days without a day off, and you extend that deployment and don’t give an end date, the mental health is going to suffer.” Officials have acknowledged the extraordinary length of the deployment but say sailors continue to receive support while carrying out operations in the region. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, took to X on Friday, writing, “I deployed for 485 days in Afghanistan with an 80 percent-plus casualty rate. We came under fire nearly every day. Combat deployments bring real hardship. That is simply the truth. We endured it. We held together. We finished the mission.
“The media treatment of the USS Abraham Lincoln is something different,” Parnell said. “Legitimate challenges of a long combat deployment are being twisted into a false narrative, while the genuine difficulties faced by military families are being used for headlines. That is shameful.” The USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed since November 2025 and has spent more than nine months away from its home port in San Diego. According to lawmakers and Navy reports, the carrier has been at sea for more than 250 consecutive days, including over 200 days without a port call, an operational tempo that is unusually demanding even by modern Navy standards. For decades, U.S. Navy carrier deployments were typically about six months. Under the Navy’s Optimized Fleet Response Plan, the target generally shifted to around seven months, though extensions have become more common in recent years because of global tensions and maintenance backlogs. That means the Lincoln is potentially two to three months beyond a standard deployment.
Supply Issues and Extended Deployment
Family members have raised concerns about food shortages, plumbing problems, disrupted mail, exhaustion, and declining mental health. Rogers told Newsweek on Friday that crew members had been lacking basic necessities such as sanitary products, razors, and soap, as supplies ran dry because of the unexpected extension of the deployment. The Navy’s resupply efforts had also been slow to arrive, she said. The Lincoln is still believed to be off the coast of Iran or in the Arabian Sea, but as with other military operations, the exact location is not widely known. It is expected to be replaced by the USS George Washington, which was dispatched from across Asia in Vietnam last week.
While Trump slammed the widely reported issues aboard the Lincoln as fake, another story also circulated last week about an alleged brawl aboard the vessel. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on August 11 that seven people had been killed and several others wounded in a “bloody clash” on the Lincoln. “This report is false,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees all U.S. forces in the Middle East, said in a statement to Newsweek on Thursday. “As we have continuously seen, Iran continues to peddle lies and spread falsities.” Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Sam Wilson.