Trump Puts A Carrier 2,000 Miles Away From Its Supplies

The voyages of Odysseus had less trouble than Trump’s sea-born operations.

Trump’s incompetence runs deeper that the water underneath the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The military side of it was visible years ago.

In 2020 Trump signed an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.

Trump ordered direct talks with the Taliban without consulting with our allies and partners or allowing the Afghan government at the negotiating table. Trump emboldened the Taliban by publicly considering inviting them to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11. He pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban soldiers from jail, and US troops were drawn down to 2,500. This in a country where 100,000 Americans were not able to win a war, or in fact 650,000 Soviet soldiers before them.

Some 2,500 Americans lost their lives fighting for their country. It was not their fault that the war could not have been won.

Trump did not consult with the Afghan allies or with the incoming Biden administration.

When he returned to power, he removed General Charles Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several naval commanders who he said were responsible for the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump claimed they were involved in a “shameful withdrawal.”

A US review by the National Security Council of that chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan largely lays the blame on Trump, saying Biden was “severely constrained” by the decisions of his predecessor.

But of course, Trump found someone else to blame: General Brown.

One of the things that astonishes me about the ‘tales of Trump’, is that no one holds him responsible for his own actions. Where were the headlines? Where did we read “Trump fires general who obeyed his orders”?

And now we have the continuing consequence: an entire aircraft carrier that has to be withdrawn from action because Trump and his nincompetents can’t keep the men fed or relieved from over-long duty.

Of course, he despises the military. They are the people that he called “suckers and losers”. He said that John McCain was not a hero, because he was captured. Never mind that McCain spent five and a half years in the “Hanoi Hilton”, often in solitary confinement, because he would not sign a document blaming the American government for the war. Trump attacked a family for days because the widow had dared to criticize him. He told the widow of another soldier that her husband – whose name Trump kept forgetting – “knew what he signed up for.” Very sensitive and supporting.

It is therefore somewhat appropriate that we hear Steve Schmidt’s view of Trump. Schnidt ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign for president.

I remember that campaign, because I got to meet McCain. He was the only candidate who bothered to visit Canada during a campaign. It was righteous strategic outreach, though it did him little good at the time.

Schmidt gave a brutal review of Trump-the-person.

“He has brought this country in three short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office.

“This is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness…When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don’t use those words to name call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior. His comportment. His actions. We’ve never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country whose ever been charged with substantial responsibilities.

“It’s just astonishing that this man is president of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman.

“Well, he’s the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he’s brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale. And, let’s be clear. This isn’t happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter.

“We are the place where you’re the most likely to die from this disease. We’re the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are, because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk.”

Under Trump’s strategic genius, Iran has hit 20+ US sites in eight countries, downed 42 US warplanes, and cost America $13B since Epic Fury began. Iran used advanced maneuvering missiles and saturation tactics to overwhelm US air defenses during five days of sustained missile and drone attacks on three American bases in Jordan alone. US forces fired around 50 Patriot interceptors in a single day, with each missile costing roughly $4 million. The Pentagon has fired more than 1,500 Patriot interceptors during the war, leaving fewer than 1,700 in its inventory.

Even Fox News could take no more…

The story comes into sharp focus with the widely known epic of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea since November 2025 because its deployment has been repeatedly extended past its original May return date. Trump’s war was expected (by Himself) to last only a few weeks. Now the carrier and its crew of roughly 5,000 have spent over 250 consecutive days deployed since leaving San Diego.

Food and other supplies were difficult to deliver, because US bases in the region had been under fire. The US Navy initially used the Bahrain base for supply operations in its offensive against Iran, but was forced to change strategies following Iran’s attacks on the base. The Navy decided to move its supply operations to the UK naval base located on the island of Diego Garcia, which sits over 3,500 km (2,175 miles) from the two US carrier strike groups operating in the Gulf of Oman.

The Navy conceded that the conflict created a “highly contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions.” In fact, since before the war, US citizens in the Gulf countries were more-or-less on their own for evacuation, making their own plans and limiting their baggage to carry-ons, in order to escape without government support.

Aboard ship there were problems reported months ago about the plumbing, and there was also the alleged laundry fire. Evidently they have not received maintenance and the Trump regime is furious that they have spoken out to their families. Pete Hegseth says it’s not very “professional” and not how “warriors” should behave.

The relatives of sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln described moldy showers, broken facilities and shortages of food, soap, toothpaste and deodorant. Neither the US commander-n-chief nor secretary of war have ever served. They don’t know how to plan, so making arrangements for food, soap, etc. is not in their playbook . They simply don’t know how. Some service members reportedly received meals as small as half a cup of rice and two tortillas. Families said crews are working “excruciatingly long shifts, rarely receiving days off” at sea near Iran. One father, a Navy veteran, said his son had seen holes worn through parts of the flight deck.

Hegseth denied any reports of stress.

This comes from the administration that split the war into two periods, to avoid a Congressional review of a conflict longer than 90 days. Even servicemen who were killed in action between the two periods acknowledged as official ‘wars’, were not listed as killed in combat.

Reports have since emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns. It is reassuring that the Navy said it has “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship.”

The service members are evidently no longer receiving their mail and a large number of servicemembers family members have reported they have not had contact with their loved one at all since the war began. One service members wife reported their son has yet to meet his father. Her husband has not even seen a photo. Their son is 4 months old now.

Iranian media reported that seven U.S. Navy personnel had died in a brawl aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Snopes has not been able to confirm the report, though it has promised updates.

Reflecting this pattern, the USS Gerald R. Ford, also had an extended stay at sea, returning home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War. It experienced a fire in a laundry space that forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep.

Trump dismissed the Lincoln’s problems, saying that the ship’s deployment length is “not nearly long enough.”

Asked whether the crew’s families are concerned, he replied, “No, they’re not.”

He added that the carrier would soon be relieved by “another very similar ship.”

He called American servicemen either whiners or liars and it did not make a headline anywhere.

The carrier USS George Washington is heading now toward the Middle East to replace the Lincoln. Its absence from its post will leave all of Asia without a US aircraft carrier. It would be sad if the Chinese found out.

The USS Washington has already been on patrol for three months.

Now, it is suddenly being diverted to the Middle East.

You don’t do that, if you think the crew of Lincoln are liars and everything is fine. You do that in desperation, because you don’t have any other plan, because you’ve messed this up so badly you need to cover your bets before it gets even worse.

Of course, Washington could rush brigades of fully-trained ICE warriors to Taiwan to deal with any invasions. I’m sure Trump has it covered.

America’s stance has not even helped Israel; now the State of Palestine is officially recognized as a sovereign state by 157 of the 193 member states of the United Nations (about 81%), along with the Vatican. Trump received over $450 MILLION from pro-Israel sources.

An entire month has passed without a single drop of Saudi Arabian crude oil reaching U.S. shores.

A jaw-dropping 75% of Americans believe that his Iran War is “not worth the cost.”

The war with Iran has shown no signs so far of ending,

By the time Trump is finished, the US will likely be forced to leave all of West Asia.

That will cut the world in two for American power. The globe will have a dividing line.

And one half will have an initially weak hand.

A region like the Paciifc without an aircraft carrier is being guarded by hopes and dreams, not a military presence.

But equally important is the impact of the lack of leadership planning on those enduring severe exhaustion, shortages of necessities and deteriorating living conditions – both the service people and their families. A lack of confidence carries over.

And it has not escaped the notice of voters that there is not a single piece of Legislation that Trump has created to benefit the average American.

The USS Abraham Lincoln did not receive a single torpedo hit; it did not sink.

But it took down American confidence all the same.

Thanks to the incompetence of its president.

The worst ever.

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In the coming weeks we will look at WHAT IF THE PRESIDENT IS AN IDIOT – Trump, power and the death of serious politics – How a reality show became a presidency.

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