It’s been alleged that the ship’s crew has endured poor living conditions during nearly 275 days at sea, with reports of food shortages, water contamination and broken toilets
Credit: Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- The USS Abraham Lincoln is returning to its San Diego base after nearly 275 days at sea
- It’s been alleged that the crew has endured poor living conditions in recent weeks
- Speaking to reporters on Friday, Aug. 14, Donald Trump said that the aircraft carrier had not been deployed “nearly long enough”
The USS Abraham Lincoln is sailing home to San Diego after nearly 275 days at sea — and just a week after Donald Trump said it hadn’t been deployed “nearly long enough.”
On Thursday, Aug. 20, NBC News reported that the aircraft carrier had begun its journey back to NAS North Island and been replaced in the Middle East by the Japan-based USS George Washington, which joins the USS George H. W. Bush in the region.
The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, and was initially scheduled for a seven-month deployment. Its extended mission has recently drawn scrutiny, however, with reports alleging poor living conditions on the ship, including food shortages, water contamination and broken toilets.
Credit: Getty
On Aug. 13, CNN reported that a sailor had gone overboard while wearing a life vest during a “mental health episode” on Monday, Aug. 3. The sailor was later rescued unharmed, the outlet added.
The previous day, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Armed Services Committee, wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, expressing his “serious concern” about the historic deployment.
Hegseth has since described reports about the conditions onboard the ship as being “completely misrepresented” and said that he spoke with the ship’s crew last week, per Reuters.
Despite the scrutiny, Trump, 80, told reporters at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews on Friday, Aug. 14, that the USS Abraham Lincoln hadn’t been deployed “nearly long enough.”
He added this week that the sailors had spent a “good period of time” at sea, but said that “over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer,” The Guardian reported.
The same day as Trump’s Maryland comments, Hung Cao, acting secretary of the Navy, announced in a statement, “The USS Abraham Lincoln crushed their deployment and will return home soon as part of a planned rotation. Details will come but let me be clear: the safety and security of our Sailors and Marines always comes first.”
Credit: Getty
Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the U.S. Central Command, visited the ship over the weekend and wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that the crew “delivered a performance for the ages, and now you are going home.”
He added, “History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era.”
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Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is enforcing a renewed blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, something Hegseth said the U.S. can maintain “indefinitely,” per NBC News.
PEOPLE reached out to the U.S. Central Command, the Chief of Naval Operations and the U.S. 3rd Fleet for comment but did not immediately hear back.
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