President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll that the record-setting uninterrupted time at sea is having on American sailors deployed to the Middle East stationed on the USS Abraham Lincoln as Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the aircraft carrier.
In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment's length and even said that the more than 260-day deployment is “not nearly long enough.”