Did Donald Trump refer to the servicemembers deployed at USS Lincoln as "suckers and losers"? No, that's not true: His account on Truth Social didn't show the purported post. Neither an archive of his posts nor credible media reports mentioned the entry in question.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook by a user named "Sharon Stout" on August 16, 2026. It read:
Only suckers and losers would enlist, go to sea on an aircraft carrier, and then complain and send their family nasty notes about our military. They weren't at sea long enough.
This is what the shared image purporting to be a screenshot of the @realDonaldTrump post on his account on Truth Social looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by "Sharon Stout" on Facebook.)
USS Lincoln is one of the carriers that support U.S. operations in the Middle East.
The claim went viral when the hardships experienced by its crew got news coverage (archived here).
The profile picture and the red checkmark were consistent with the appearance of Trump's profile (archived here) on Truth Social. However, a search across his account did not generate the evidence supporting the claim, as seen here (archived here).
A search on the archive of Trump's posts didn't produce a match (archived here), either.
Had the story been true, it would have been reported by credible news outlets, but that was not the case for the purported post (archived here).
This claim was also reviewed by Snopes.com.
