The wife of a US service member responded to Trump's callous statement this weekend, where he basically told everyone trapped on that ship to pound sand.
After playing a clip of Trump, when asked if the deployment was too long, saying, “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” CNN's Jake Tapper asked the wife to respond. Tapper told the audience that they were keeping her and her husband's identity a secret, which is good, because you know Trump and Whiskey Pete will be trying to retaliate against anyone they can identify that is brave enough to speak out about what's going on.
Here's the exchange via CNN, where she rightfully ripped Trump:
TAPPER: Thank you so much for joining us. What is your husband saying about conditions on the ship?
USS LINCOLN SERVICE MEMBER'S WIFE: My husband is appalled at the conditions on this ship. This is not his first appointment. This is not his first time being out there. And he is saying that it is the worst deployment that he's ever been on. And he also says that his shipmates say the same.
The food is appalling, but the food's been appalling the whole time. I think that the food on these ships are always pretty bad, but it's more -- it's not just the quality, it's the quantity, it's the rationing. The portions are awful. So it's really—it's really not good.
TAPPER: And then my understanding is that morale is really bad for any number of reasons, not just in terms of people not being chipper, but just the workload nonstop. No real effort to understand morale. There hasn't been a port call in more than 200 days. So they've been at sea the entire time. And this might explain why some of the sailors have been jumping overboard.
USS LINCOLN SERVICE MEMBER'S WIFE: Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. My husband is a very leave-it-at-work type of person. He gets his job done, he comes home, and he's -- he lets it go at work.
He does his best. He works very hard for the United States military. And he's even said that he finds himself changing. He feels himself being angrier and a little bit more and more frustrated, and that's just very unlike him. So it's very hard to hear that as his wife, when I can't do anything about it; I can't help him.
The only thing that I'm able to do is send him care packages and try to give him some positives, send him pictures from back home of our kids to try to boost his morale and keep him strong. Because when you're stuck in a floating metal prison, essentially in the middle of the water, eating prison like food, with the same people in the same bunk beds in the same small quarters for 200 days, 250 days, you start to go a little insane working 12 hours, getting four or five hours of sleep, and I truly just can't imagine, and it hurts my heart as his wife to know that he's going through that.
TAPPER: And what was your -- what was your reaction today?
USS LINCOLN SERVICE MEMBER'S WIFE: It's (inaudible) sailor.
TAPPER: What was your reaction today to President Trump saying that, in fact, he didn't think the USS Lincoln's deployment has been, quote, "long enough?"
USS LINCOLN SERVICE MEMBER'S WIFE: Oh, my God. I don't think the man thinks before he talks. And I'm just -- I -- I'm really hope -- I was really hoping that at some point there would be a redemption. Try to redeem yourself at least a little bit with everything that you do and everything that you say, and try to redeem yourself. Have some sympathy, some empathy, take some accountability for what's going on with your military, your ships in your war, in your war.
It's infuriating. I mean, we heard what Hegseth said yesterday, what the President is saying today. It's infuriating, saying -- essentially saying that families are lying and service members are lying, even though the proof is right here on my phone; it is not fabricated. Nobody is lying. Everybody is -- it's infuriating that they're not taking accountability and not having any sort of sympathy for our service members, that they claim to scream and shout that they support when it's politically, you know, sound for them to use support our troops, support our troops until our troops need support.
And now suddenly everyone's lying, and it's a fabrication, and it's a misrepresentation? It's infuriating. And I so badly would love to plaster my face and blow the whistle so loud on social media with my name and be like, this is real. We are real people. Those are real people on that ship.
This is actually happening. But unfortunately, I have to protect my husband's career. And you know, he's making a career out of this, or he was. I'm not sure he -- I'm not sure what he's going to do when he gets back, or what his plan is going to be after this.
TAPPER: Thank you so much for your time and for your family's sacrifice and, of course, for your husband's service.
USS LINCOLN SERVICE MEMBER'S WIFE: Thank you.
Amen sister. I hope her husband is back home soon.
They're destroying our military with these incompetent morons in charge.
