Trump talks marble floors while sailors pay the price for his Iran war

[0:00] What's up, everybody? I'm Jacob Soberoff. Good evening from New York. And for Chris Hayes, [0:03] let's take a quick trip back in time, if I might. It was on May 1st, 2003, that George W. Bush [0:10] declared mission accomplished in Iraq on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham [0:16] Lincoln. How could we forget? That war sadly lasted for the better part of a decade. Tomorrow [0:21] marks two months since what some have called Donald Trump's mission accomplished moment. [0:27] When he posted that his war with Iran was over and he told all of the world he would be traveling [0:31] to the Palace of Versailles in France with great pomp and circumstance to sign the formal agreement. [0:37] This is what he said back then. The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. [0:41] Congratulations to all. I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz and [0:47] simultaneously herewith authorize immediate removal of the United States naval blockade. Ships of the [0:53] world, start your engines. Let the oil flow. Two months after Trump's mission accomplished moment, [1:00] America is still at war in the Middle East. Donald Trump is secretly switching planes to avoid alleged [1:06] Iranian threats. And Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz and 20 percent of the world's oil supply. [1:12] In fact, shipping traffic through the Strait this week reached its lowest level in three months, [1:17] about 90 percent lower than it was before the United States and Israel attacked Iran. That's driven [1:23] the national average gas price to, you already know this, $4.07 a gallon today. That is the highest it [1:31] has ever been this late in the year. The war is also exhausting the arsenal of the world's most powerful [1:37] military as the United States and their allies have burned through most of their long-range strike [1:44] missiles and the defensive interceptors as well. And today, the Washington Post reports that the United [1:49] States has lost 45 Reaper drones, 25 percent of its entire arsenal, in a war with a nation, according [1:56] to Donald Trump, whose small air force was destroyed multiple times in the past six months. That's odd. [2:04] It's not just shortages of oil and weaponry. Trump's war is also depleting morale among some of the [2:09] service members who have been on station, waging his war since it started. We're going to have more on [2:14] that in just a minute, and you're not going to want to miss it. What is Donald Trump doing about all of [2:17] this? What is he focusing on? What do you think he is focusing on? Today in Washington, Trump's hand-picked [2:23] board voted to put his name back on the front of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It's [2:29] been one of his obsessions to remake the Kennedy Center in his image. He wants to do a quarter of [2:35] a billion dollars of renovations on the center, including adding marble floors. And yes, we have [2:40] been here before. Just last year, Trump's board had his name installed on the center, and they looked [2:46] ready to break ground on the renovations. But then a judge said no. So they eventually removed his name [2:51] from the wall behind a tarp safe from public view. I went to see the mess myself after the judge [2:55] ordered the administration to take his name down. Did he leave that tarp up because he was embarrassed [3:02] about the removal? You decide. But now it might be back, the name at least. The board voted to install [3:10] an inscription saying, restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump. And they voted to close [3:18] the main hall down for those renovations. Both moves violate the judge's order. But Trump wants this [3:22] so, so, so badly. This week, PolitiFact reviewed all of Donald Trump's public events and speeches [3:28] so far this year. And they found that he had devoted nearly 45,000 words just to his vanity [3:34] construction projects in Washington. That is almost as many words as there are in Great Gatsby. More, [3:38] I think, than the latest book that I wrote about the costliest wildfire event in American history. [3:43] In fact, the review found that Trump mentioned his projects more than any other single topic except [3:48] one. Guess what? The Iran War. And it was pretty, pretty, pretty close, as Larry might say. But [3:56] PolitiFact notes, the Iran War led the list when he was responding to reporters' questions about the [4:02] war. In other words, when the subject chosen was the subject that was chosen for him. But they added, [4:09] Trump returned to the construction projects repeatedly when he was the one choosing what to [4:14] talk about. He always comes back to the ballroom or the pool or the new marble floors in the Kennedy [4:22] Center beneath his name in gold. That is what he is focused on. Not the war. And certainly not the [4:29] more than 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Get this. The same aircraft carrier [4:37] from George W. Bush's photo op left its home port last November, just after Donald Trump was elected, [4:43] just after he was elected. It left San Diego last November and headed for the Persian Gulf. And by April, [4:50] deep into Trump's war, the USS Lincoln went viral as friends and families were sharing photos that [4:55] sailors had taken, look at this, of the meager portions those sailors got from the ship's mess [5:02] halls. They blamed the logistics of such a long deployment. Pete Hegseth called those reports, [5:09] these pictures, fake news. That was back when the Lincoln crew thought their deployment would end [5:15] in May. It did not end in May. They remained at sea today. They're still there, 265 days after they [5:21] left home. Last week, MS Now's Priya Sridhar interviewed more than a dozen family members who say they're [5:28] extremely concerned with the morale and the safety and the conditions on the ship. They cited things [5:32] like moldy showers and food shortages, sailors running out of toothpaste, deodorant and soap too, [5:41] as well as water contamination and mail disruptions. It left care packages undelivered. A lot of people [5:47] warned that their sailors' mental health was at risk. You know, fresh food is a problem, especially [5:55] considering the conditions right now. Just, I mean, there's a logistical problem with getting fresh food [5:59] out there just based on where they are, right? All he's really told me is there was a time where he [6:03] was only eating half a cup of rice and two tortillas. They want our support. And part of that support [6:08] means we have to have the tools to do our job. That means the fuel. That means the food, right? That [6:15] means the food. That means the toothpaste and the deodorant. That means all of it, right? I don't think [6:19] it's the ship is the issue. I think it's, it's our president. It's our government. Did you hear [6:29] that? I don't think it's the ship that's the issue. I think it's our president. It's our government. [6:36] This week, Military Times discovered multiple incidents in which sailors on the Lincoln [6:40] attempted to jump overboard. That's 60 feet down. Pete Hegseth stopped short of calling that fake [6:47] news today, but he seemed to deny that there were any problems on the Lincoln. Completely misrepresented. [6:53] Listen, we make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them [7:01] at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more [7:05] respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. We do know that at least one Lincoln [7:14] sailor did jump off the ship, but miraculously, he was rescued after an hour in the open ocean. We know [7:20] that because his wife today spoke exclusively with Trither of MS Now and shared texts from her husband [7:26] earlier in the Lincoln's deployment, including one text that said, quote, the boat is finally getting [7:33] to me. Now members of Congress from both parties are demanding answers from the Pentagon about [7:38] the Lincoln's cursed deployment. And while there is certainly no mission accomplished victory banner [7:45] hanging off the control tower of the Lincoln anymore, Donald Trump's pointless war in the Middle East [7:50] drags on. And this time, the USS Abraham Lincoln, the sailors, and the service members are calling [7:56] for help, help to understand what their mission actually is. Priya Schreeder is our MS Now Pentagon [8:04] correspondent who has done truly incredible reporting on the hardships facing the crew of the Lincoln. [8:10] Priya, thank you so much for being here and for your reporting. [8:14] Thanks so much, Jacob. [8:15] Let me ask you, we had seen reports that sailors attempted to jump overboard from the Lincoln [8:21] and were stopped, too. But you have this reporting that one sailor actually did end up in the water. [8:25] Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yeah, that's right, Jacob. And I actually just [8:29] spoke to his 19 year old wife who said that she saw him for the first time since he went on this [8:36] deployment. And by the way, he finally got to meet his five month old daughter who was born back in [8:43] February while he was on the ship. But now he is actually in the Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego [8:50] because he got medically evacuated off of that ship after he tried to jump and take his life [8:56] last Monday. And his wife shared with me that she was growing increasingly concerned over some of the [9:03] text messages that he had been sending to her since about halfway through the ship's deployment. [9:08] He was talking to her about being exhausted and hopeless. And he worked on the aircraft carrier's [9:15] flight deck as a mechanic on the helicopter squadron. And he shared with her that his [9:20] prescription contact lenses had expired and that he was worried that he was having issues [9:26] seeing and that that could potentially lead to accidents. And he expressed those concerns and [9:32] also some of the concerns over his mental health with his chain of command and with the ship's medical [9:37] team, according to her. And she says that they basically just brushed it off. Now, what's even more [9:44] concerning about all of this is she says that she learned about her husband's suicide attempt from [9:49] one of his squadron mates. And when she discovered that it was actually him who had jumped off the [9:54] ship, she attempted to reach out to the Navy several times and didn't receive any sort of response [10:01] until five days later. So I think all of this, Jacob, just really shines a spotlight on the mental [10:08] toll that it's this ongoing war in Iran is taking on our service members. [10:13] Well, it sounds like there was some kind of response from the Pentagon, you said. But I wonder what more [10:17] of the Navy or the Pentagon are doing about any of this. What does your reporting tell you? [10:22] Yeah, that's right, Jacob. So last week, I also exclusively reported on these two back-to-back [10:28] town halls that Navy leaders held. One was in person with the acting secretary of the Navy, [10:33] Hung Kao, and about 200 family members in San Diego. And actually, in that town hall, [10:39] they confronted the secretary of the Navy about this report of a sailor who went overboard. And [10:46] another Navy leader who was there basically said that the situation was under investigation and it [10:51] was unclear at that point if this sailor had actually intentionally jumped off the ship or if he had [10:57] fallen off. But this Navy leader said that that sailor was fine and that was met with a lot of anger [11:04] from the families. Now, Navy leaders inside of the Pentagon have told me that they have not seen an [11:09] uptick in any sort of suicide ideations on this deployment. But they said that they can't obviously [11:16] specifically comment on any service members' medical records for privacy reasons. [11:22] The conditions sound horrific. And I did see that an anonymous active duty sailor wrote an opinion piece [11:28] for the military times. And it was called, if long deployments are the future, endurance can't be [11:34] the Navy's only plan. It's got to be unusual for service members to write opinion pieces like this. [11:39] What does it tell you about the military morale six months into this war with the 30 seconds that [11:44] we have left? Yeah, Jacob, I think that the service members are desperate. And I think that's why [11:49] these family members are trying to sound the alarm here. You know, what's going on with the Navy [11:55] right now is unprecedented. The Lincoln hit a modern day record for the most continuous days at sea. [12:01] They didn't have a port call for 208 days. That's completely unheard of. The Ford that was also [12:06] deployed in Operation Epic Fury hit a record for the longest deployment in modern Navy history. So [12:14] what's going on right now with the Navy is something that historically has never happened. And that is [12:19] what's prompting these service members and these family members to speak out, Jacob. [12:23] Priya Sridhar, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.