President Donald Trump left 16-year-old lifeguard Ryder Williams visibly uncomfortable Monday, turning a White House honor ceremony into an extended defense of the USS Lincoln‘s record deployment.
Williams was invited to the Oval Office to receive a civilian honor for a viral rescue this summer.
On July 25, Williams plunged into 8-to-10-foot surf at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz, California, to save a 10-year-old boy who had lost consciousness in the water, according to Good Morning America.
Trump opened the ceremony by praising Williams for the rescue.
“I understand he was a winner right from the time they first saw him as a lifeguard,” Trump said.
Trump then turned to the USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier at the center of a national debate over its record-setting deployment.
“It’s been out there for a period of time, good period of time,” Trump said of the ship. “But over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer.”
Trump cited a retired admiral he said approached him at a group meeting over the weekend to vouch for the deployment.
“He said, I’ve been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir. And I know people on the lake, and they say it’s beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of. And other people went out, and they found out to be true,” Trump said.
“It was fake news reporting from CNN,” he snapped.
As Trump spoke, Williams avoided eye contact with the president and appeared visibly uncomfortable. After roughly 15 seconds, the 16-year-old put his head in his hands, appearing to wipe away sweat.
Trump’s remarks appeared to be a response to a CNN report published Sunday by correspondent Pamela Brown, who spent three days aboard the Lincoln and described conditions as “messier than a single narrative.”
The Lincoln has been at sea for more than 260 days, setting a modern record for a carrier deployment, ABC News reported.
Trump had addressed the deployment just three days earlier, on Friday, when a reporter asked whether it had gone on too long.
“No, no. Not nearly long enough,” Trump said at Joint Base Andrews.
Ashley Rogers, the wife of an officer aboard the Lincoln, told Newsweek Trump’s comments were “selfish” and “disconnected from reality.”
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