It’s been more than a week since MS NOW first reported on the conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, including moldy showers, food shortages and sailors running out of basic necessities, like soap.

The report, based on conversations with a dozen family members with loved ones serving on the ship, sounded the alarm about “excruciatingly long shifts” and potentially dangerous conditions as the aircraft carrier enters its ninth month at sea and its fifth consecutive month of combat operations against Iran. The Lincoln, MS NOW went on to note, left its home port of San Diego on Nov. 21 and has set a modern-day record for the most continuous days at sea.

President Donald Trump said effectively nothing about this until Friday afternoon, during a brief Q&A with reporters.

When one reporter noted that family members of U.S. service members are “concerned about the conditions” on the USS Lincoln, the president started to reply before rejecting the premise of what he’d been asked. “No, they’re not,” the Republican said.

After insisting that the USS Lincoln would soon be “replaced” by another ship, Trump was asked whether the current deployment has gone on too long.

“No, no, no,” Trump replied. Leaning in closer to the press corps for emphasis, he quickly added, “Not nearly long enough.”

At that point, the president turned and walked away.

The suggestion that the family members of sailors and Marines aboard the USS Lincoln are not concerned about conditions on the ship is genuinely bizarre. There’s no shortage of reporting, from MS NOW and other news organizations, about the extent of these Americans’ fears, especially amid reports about an apparent recent suicide attempt.

Trump, given an opportunity to address those concerns, decided to insist they don’t exist, perhaps because they might reflect poorly on his administration, its tragic judgment or the war he started but doesn’t know how to end.

But adding insult to injury was to hear the president — who avoided military service himself during the Vietnam war, citing “bone spurs” — casually make the claim that brutally long deployments haven’t gone “nearly long enough.”

The Republican’s attitude toward service members has long been an embarrassment, including his repeated efforts to downplay the significance of troops with traumatic brain injuries.

Trump has also reportedly denigrated those who serve in the military and condemned fallen American heroes as “suckers” (though he denies having doing so). Trump has also complained bitterly about American military leaders, reportedly disparaged wounded veterans, blamed military leaders for failed missions he approved, feuded with Gold Star families and famously declared in reference to American prisoners of war, “I like people that weren’t captured, okay?”

What’s more, as a candidate, Trump liked to say he “felt” like he had served in the military because his parents sent him to a military-themed boarding school as a teenager. He went so far as to boast that his expensive prep school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

It seems hard to believe the president could make matters worse, but he managed to find a way.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Pressed on conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump says all the wrong things appeared first on MS NOW.

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From MS Now.