The USS Abraham Lincoln will return home to San Diego later today after supporting the Iran war during a record long deployment of 265 uninterrupted days at sea.<\/p>\n
For months, there have been widespread concerns since reports first emerged of supply shortages and deteriorating mental health onboard.<\/p>\n
In remarks yesterday, however, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth sought to play down the issues, instead condemning \u201ca few folks in the media\u201d who he accused of trying to \u201cturn\u201d the Lincoln\u2019s deployment \u201cinto some sort of symbol of dysfunction, or a symbol of low morale or a symbol of a failed mission\u201d.<\/p>\n
While Trump administration officials pushed back against <\/a>accounts of poor conditions, families and veterans warned that the length and intensity of the deployment were taking a toll on both those serving onboard and their loved ones.<\/p>\n As reports of conditions leaked out, the Lincoln soon became a flashpoint in the increasingly contentious<\/a> debate over the war and, for some, a symbol of the strains and pressures the conflict has placed on the US military and the people serving in it.<\/p>\n Hegseth flew out to the carrier on Wednesday to give the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive that is typically reserved for significant achievement in combat.<\/p>\n He said that \u201cwhat makes the US military<\/a> and the US Navy and all these sailors different is that you adapt and that you\u2019re resilient and you overcome \u2014 you finish the mission nonetheless.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth told the crew that president Donald Trump<\/a> \u201ctracked your activities from day one and couldn\u2019t be more proud of what you executed.\u201d<\/p>\n The US carrier, with roughly 5,000 sailors and marines onboard, left San Diego in November 2025, initially bound<\/a> for the Pacific and expected to return in the spring. But after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February, the Lincoln was redirected to the Middle East, to support US operations in the region.<\/p>\n Read our full story here:<\/p>\n In other developments:<\/p>\n In remarks in San Antonio, Texas, Donald Trump<\/a> tried to channel the anti-Muslim racism that helped get him elected in 2016, by skipping straight from a dire warning that Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it had one to the wild, false claim that Barack Obama could have stopped the Ft Hood gunman, Nidal Hasan, but chose not to.<\/p>\n Trump repeated his false claim that the war he started with Iran in February was necessary to prevent Iran from destroying American cities like Los Angeles or San Diego in a nuclear attack. In fact, US intelligence agencies assessed in 2025 that Iran had abandoned its pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s midterm rally speech was disrupted up to a dozen times by protesters.<\/p>\n The Democratic National Committee sued the Trump administration<\/a> in federal court, asking a judge in Washington to stop the president from using taxpayer funds to air a series of ads promoting himself, arguing that the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Donald Trump has said he wants to develop one of his Florida golf courses into a presidential retreat where his successors can spend quiet weekends on the greens, describing it as \u201csort of a Camp David \u201d that he says would already have many of the security features needed to host presidents and world leaders.<\/p>\n The proposal for the retreat on Trump\u2019s private golf course in West Palm Beach would comingle the presidency with Trump\u2019s business ventures beyond his time in office, and is the latest example of Trump seeking ways to leave his imprint on the presidency.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great idea, and it\u2019ll be used a lot,\u201d Trump said, claiming it was suggested by the United States Secret Service. \u201cIt seems that all presidents play golf.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Worries around artificial intelligence cross party lines, with the vast majority of Americans saying the US government should prioritize keeping AI under human control and protecting workers.<\/p>\n A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans, 64%, think AI is developing \u201ctoo fast,\u201d while 27% say its development has been \u201cabout right\u201d and only 8% say it\u2019s moving \u201ctoo slow.\u201d<\/p>\n The risk that powerful AI models could evade human control and hurt humanity, once the stuff of science fiction, has been emerging as a more pressing concern.<\/p>\n Even leaders of the companies that are developing frontier AI models are calling for a slowdown so that government regulation can catch up.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump<\/a> has pushed back against slowing down AI development because of concerns that China will gain an advantage with the technology.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Secretary of state Marco Rubio is in Portugal on the last leg of a three-nation tour of Nato allies.<\/p>\n Rubio arrived in Lisbon on Thursday for a brief stop on his return to Washington, a day after delivering a speech in the Greek capital of Athens urging European countries to save Western civilization by upholding the values and traditions of ancient Greece.<\/p>\n Rubio, who began his trip in Iceland, is expected to thank Portuguese officials for supporting US operations in the Iran war by allowing the US to use the Lajes Field air base in Portugal\u2019s mid-Atlantic Azores islands, which is strategically located for military refueling flights.<\/p>\n The US Air Force has long had a base there under an agreement with Portugal. Unlike neighboring Spain, where socialist leader Pedro S\u00e1nchez refused to allow the American military to use Spanish bases to stage operations for attacks on Iran, Portugal\u2019s center-right government granted Washington \u201cconditional approval\u201d to use Lajes Field.<\/p>\n \u201cPortugal is a great ally, very cooperative ally of the United States and a country with which we already have a solid and growing relationship. And we visit these countries in order to reinforce those ties,\u201d Rubio said before departing Athens. \u201cThat\u2019s the purpose of the trip.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a> As Donald Trump<\/a> struggled to end the war with Iran, and the Lincoln\u2019s deployment dragged on, reports emerged over the summer of shortages of food and basic supplies, and deteriorating mental health and morale among some crew members, including that two crew members had attempted to jump overboard.<\/p>\n At the time, senior Trump administration officials dismissed the reports. Hegseth claimed they \u201ccompletely misrepresented\u201d the reality, while Trump, when asked in August whether the deployment had gone on too long, responded, \u201cNot nearly long enough\u201d \u2013 a remark that upset some naval families.<\/p>\n The reports about the conditions on the Lincoln caused concern among some military health experts, veterans and families of sailors onboard, and drew outrage from Democratic lawmakers, including several who demanded more information from the Pentagon.<\/p>\n The Lincoln was relieved from its deployment later in August, as the USS George Washington aircraft carrier arrived in the Middle East to take its place.<\/p>\n But in recent weeks, as the Lincoln has headed back to San Diego, a new disclosure about the carrier has renewed scrutiny. Acting navy secretary Hung Cao acknowledged last month that eight service members from the Lincoln and its strike group had attempted suicide during the deployment.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Controversial record-long USS Lincoln deployment over as carrier set to return home to San Diego<\/p>\n Hello and welcome to the US politics<\/a> live blog.<\/p>\n The USS Abraham Lincoln will return home to San Diego later today after supporting the Iran war during a record long deployment of 265 uninterrupted days at sea.<\/p>\n For months, there have been widespread concerns since reports first emerged of supply shortages and deteriorating mental health onboard.<\/p>\n In remarks yesterday, however, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth sought to play down the issues, instead condemning \u201ca few folks in the media\u201d who he accused of trying to \u201cturn\u201d the Lincoln\u2019s deployment \u201cinto some sort of symbol of dysfunction, or a symbol of low morale or a symbol of a failed mission\u201d.<\/p>\n While Trump administration officials pushed back against <\/a>accounts of poor conditions, families and veterans warned that the length and intensity of the deployment were taking a toll on both those serving onboard and their loved ones.<\/p>\n As reports of conditions leaked out, the Lincoln soon became a flashpoint in the increasingly contentious<\/a> debate over the war and, for some, a symbol of the strains and pressures the conflict has placed on the US military and the people serving in it.<\/p>\n Hegseth flew out to the carrier on Wednesday to give the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive that is typically reserved for significant achievement in combat.<\/p>\n He said that \u201cwhat makes the US military<\/a> and the US Navy and all these sailors different is that you adapt and that you\u2019re resilient and you overcome \u2014 you finish the mission nonetheless.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth told the crew that president Donald Trump<\/a> \u201ctracked your activities from day one and couldn\u2019t be more proud of what you executed.\u201d<\/p>\n The US carrier, with roughly 5,000 sailors and marines onboard, left San Diego in November 2025, initially bound<\/a> for the Pacific and expected to return in the spring. But after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February, the Lincoln was redirected to the Middle East, to support US operations in the region.<\/p>\n Read our full story here:<\/p>\n In other developments:<\/p>\n In remarks in San Antonio, Texas, Donald Trump<\/a> tried to channel the anti-Muslim racism that helped get him elected in 2016, by skipping straight from a dire warning that Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it had one to the wild, false claim that Barack Obama could have stopped the Ft Hood gunman, Nidal Hasan, but chose not to.<\/p>\n Trump repeated his false claim that the war he started with Iran in February was necessary to prevent Iran from destroying American cities like Los Angeles or San Diego in a nuclear attack. In fact, US intelligence agencies assessed in 2025 that Iran had abandoned its pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s midterm rally speech was disrupted up to a dozen times by protesters.<\/p>\n The Democratic National Committee sued the Trump administration<\/a> in federal court, asking a judge in Washington to stop the president from using taxpayer funds to air a series of ads promoting himself, arguing that the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda.<\/p>\n![\"Anna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Anna_Betts.png\")
Anna Betts<\/p>\n