Episode
Will Trump's weird obsession break the US Navy?
- Podcast
- If You're Listening
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1710
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/if-you-re-listening-232515/episodes/will-trump-s-weird-obsession-break-the-us-navy/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515/will-trump-s-weird-obsession-break-the-us-navy.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea without a single port call, a new US Navy record. Leaked photos show broken toilets and meals of mystery mush, the result of being trapped on the wrong side of Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. But the real story is much bigger. The Navy's next-generation carriers were built around untested electromagnetic catapults that took over a decade and billions more than planned to get working, contributing to a shipbuilding backlog linked to a spike in sailor suicides. Now Donald Trump, who's long hated electric catapults, wants to switch back to old-fashioned steam, a call engineers say could make the mess a whole lot worse. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq