A United States Navy official revealed in a letter Tuesday that eight suicide attempts were recorded among the USS Abraham Lincoln's crew during its lengthy deployment to the Middle East, sparking criticism of President Donald Trump for his apparent dismissal of the deployment's impact. The letter, from Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao to New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, was obtained by Newsweek Wednesday. In it, he explained that mental health care was provided to sailors and said that eight suicide attempts had been recorded—a number higher than the two reported incidents earlier in the summer.
Cao noted that the cases included the Lincoln's crew and "Sailors from the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers, and all embarked aviation squadrons." As criticism and concern grew around the Lincoln's lengthy deployment—stretching over 260 days—Trump dismissed reports of declining mental health and deteriorating conditions aboard the aircraft carrier, telling reporters the deployment had not gone on long enough. Responding to the letter, which was a response to questions from the senator who sits on the Senate's Armed Services Committee, Gillibrand sharply criticized Trump and his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. "What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members," Gillibrand said in a statement to Newsweek.
"Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect. That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable." Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon, the U.S. Navy, and the White House for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Cao's letter to Gillibrand was in response to one from her August 15, at the height of the concerns around the vessel's deployment in the Middle East. The Acting Secretary said he shared the senator's "deep commitment" to the safety, health, and morale of service members. He went on to answer questions Gillibrand had asked on when the Lincoln would be able to return to the U.S., whether the crew was informed that their time at sea could be extended indefinitely, and whether there had been any suicides on board.
Cao said that the Lincoln had mental health resources on board, including, "five chaplains, one embedded integrated prevention counselor, one psychologist, one clinical social worker, three behavioral health technicians, and one expeditionary facility dog." The official also insisted that there was "good order and discipline" on the vessel, and that there were adequate food supplies—responding to particular concerns about the quality of food the sailors were able to access. The vessel left its home port of San Diego, California, on November 21, 2025, for a deployment initially focused on the Indo-Pacific. By early January, the Navy had released imagery showing the ship conducting live-fire exercises in the South China Sea.
Then, its trajectory changed, with open-source technology tracking the Lincoln moving west through the Strait of Malacca, between the Pacific and Indian Oceans amid a U.S military buildup in the Middle East. As the conflict with Iran intensified, U.S. military statements placed the Lincoln within the U.S. Fifth Fleet's area of operations and it became a key feature of U.S. military posture during the war which started on February 28.
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