For some Americans, the reality of who Donald Trump really is is coming home to roost. And for the sailors trapped aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, that moment has already arrived.
The Lincoln left San Diego last November. Nine months later, it is still at sea, its crew stretched past 250 straight days without meaningful relief. What was supposed to be a seven-month deployment has become closer to a floating humanitarian disaster.
Families have shockingly described broken toilets, moldy showers, food shortages, and sailors surviving on little more than rice and tortillas. It’s been called a “floating bucket of filth.”
So much for valuing the valor and bravery of our troops. To me, that’s Pete Hegseth’s “big lie.” He’s their worst nightmare. He doesn’t give a rat’s about the troops. Well, he does care about their “T” levels.
The Military Times broke the story that multiple sailors have tried to go overboard, and at least one was pulled from the water after an hour adrift. This is horrific and subhuman. Lawmakers from both parties are rightfully now demanding investigations.
But, besides Hegseth, who said the whole abominable ordeal is “completely misrepresented,” it won’t surprise anyone who understands the reality of Donald Trump that he, too, couldn't care less.
Asked whether the deployment had gone on too long and whether he was worried about the mental health of the more than 5,000 people aboard that ship, the insensitive and callous Trump seethed, "No. No. No." "Not nearly long enough," he added when asked if the ship had been at sea too long and, when queried about if families of those on board were right to be worried, he waved that off too: "No, they're not."
Then he, not surprisingly, like he does with everything else, blamed the press for covering it, accusing reporters of trying to turn warriors into victims.
As if the press loves to make up stories about sailors living in squalor and trying to take their own lives.
How despicable to blame the press while desperate families are pleading for answers. And Trump's response is that the suffering hasn't gone on long enough.
And that’s exactly how he feels about the nuisance of the American people’s suffering.
Remember the dolls and the pencils? When Trump was asked, point-blank, if his tariffs would raise prices on ordinary goods, he didn't apologize or explain or exude any understanding or compassion.
He shrugged his bulbous, bloated head and told the country that an 11-year-old girl doesn't need 30 dolls, three or four is plenty, and that nobody needs 250 pencils when five is sufficient.
He has said this more than once, because he genuinely believes the answer to rising costs is for regular families to simply cope with fewer pencils, dolls — oh, and make do with one piece of broccoli.
That's the same indifference he’s giving Lincoln's sailors. It's the same who-cares shrug he's giving anyone who has watched their grocery bill or their health insurance premium climb this year. Millions of Americans are having sharply higher health costs as pandemic-era subsidies lapse and insurers raise rates, a squeeze tied directly to the reconciliation package Trump signed and bragged about.
That “Big Beautiful Bill” was a metaphorical giant, cold slap in the face to middle-class Americans, who now understand why they can only afford three dolls and five pencils — if that.
And ICE agents are the literal giant, cold slap in the face to Americans’ shell-shocked visages. Agents have been turned loose in cities, conducting the kind of aggressive street operations that have left residents frightened to leave their homes, arresting and detaining people at their will.
And that cold slap in the face will be replaced by a paralyzing electric charge once ICE agents get their new shock gloves. It’s been called “sadistic." Really? You think?
Those ICE wars on our streets coincide with the war with Iran that is responsible for stretching the Lincoln's deployment now past 200 days without a port call. That war has driven up fuel, shipping and scores of other costs. Trump’s reaction? He insisted he “loves” the inflation the war with Iran has caused.
Because this whole thing hasn’t been a punishment for us long enough. There’s lots more to come, which Trump is clearly giddy about.
He’s super-giddy about things that mean absolutely nothing to the rest of us. While we scrimp, save and suffer, Trump has kept his attention fixed on himself. Rising costs of groceries, gas, bills, etc? The Iran war? To Trump it’s a scenario of “wake me up when all this frivolous stuff is over” — again, metaphorically and literally too.
Because Dear Leader Donald has bigger fish to fry. Put his name on the Kennedy Center, pave over the Rose Garden, gild up the Oval Office with gold, bungle the Reflecting Pool, build an Arc de Trump, slap a helipad on the manicured South Lawn of the White House. And, the big kahuna, his luxurious Qatar jet.
While you stay home because you can’t afford to drive to your summer vacation, Trump is descending down a grand staircase in his flying palace. Let them eat cake? Who can afford cake? Let them eat the leftover pencils, if you have any.
He tells the parents of sailors on an aircraft carrier that nine months away from their kids "isn't nearly long enough," and tells a mom buying school supplies that her daughter has plenty of pencils already — which is ok, since she can snack on the extras.
It’s a blanket indifference whether he's talking about a sailor pulled out of the Arabian Sea or a grandmother deciding between groceries and her heart medication. Trump does not see suffering as a problem to solve, or something he should be inconvenienced by.
The sailors on the Lincoln are coming home soon, the Navy says, relieved — hopefully — by another carrier. The rest of us, though, have no relief in sight. We are just getting told that our suffering isn't nearly long enough.