Your Daily Four Star

Wednesday. Trump’s new Iran plan is to stop trying while posting victory maps. Another major issue with a naval vessel as one was dead in the water off China and a carrier crew at its breaking point. Soon, you might not get that story given to you straight from Stars and Stripes, though. And in the Senate, the GOP’s answer to all of it is a candidate who says national security “is not my thing.” Day 172 of the “4-week war.” Here’s what you need to know.

After weeks of insisting a deal was “imminent,” Trump has changed the plan: give up on talking. He’s ordered his envoys to halt conversations with Iran saying, “there are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled.” He’s told allies the strategy is shifting from “hammer Iran ASAP” to “strangle them” over time, with the naval blockade staying “in full force.” He’s still claiming “complete control” of the Strait of Hormuz even as ships keep burning and the deadline for a deal expired with nothing. Six months in and here’s where we are: No answers, no talking, just pretending all is well despite all the evidence to the contrary.

It’s not just the Lincoln. The destroyer USS Benfold, with about 300 sailors, lost all power for four days in the South China Sea last month after its generators failed, leaving the crew without drinking water, meals, working toilets, or air conditioning until tugboats towed it to the Philippines. The Navy didn’t disclose it for nearly a month, until USNI News broke it. Set it beside the Lincoln’s record deployment and the sailors trying to go overboard, and what are we starting to see? A fleet stretched too thin, ships worn past their limits, and crews left in miserable conditions — and a Pentagon that would rather the public not hear about it. The Navy praised the Benfold crew’s “resilience, grit, and professionalism,” which is true, and also why they deserve better.

Speaking of what the Pentagon would rather you not hear: Max Lederer, an Army veteran who has run Stars and Stripes since 2007, is stepping down, saying his understanding of the paper’s “value and mission” differs in “fundamental ways” from where Hegseth’s Pentagon wants to take it. That direction is no mystery. The Defense Department already fired the paper’s congressionally mandated ombudsman in April, installed a Navy public-affairs captain as Lederer’s “deputy,” and issued an overhaul demanding coverage stay consistent with “good order and discipline” while stripping out “woke distractions. A newsroom that answers to the troops and keeps leaders honest is what an independent military paper is for, and exactly what’s now being dismantled by thin-skinned Hegseth.

And finally, the caliber of person the GOP wants making important national security votes with lives on the line. Darline Graham — appointed to her late brother Lindsey’s South Carolina seat and running for the full six-year term with Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” — was asked at Tuesday’s debate whether Taiwan and the South China Sea are national security concerns for the United States. Her answer: “National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I support the military.” (In the same debate, she pegged South Carolina’s population at 50 million; it’s 5.6 million.) It would be pure comedy, except this is a job that votes on wars, weapons, and whether to send other people’s kids into them. The sailors on the Benfold and the Lincoln don’t get to say readiness “isn’t their thing.” Neither should anyone auditioning to oversee them.

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