@POTUS · 18 Feb 2026 · 20:00
The United States Navy has lost the cruiser Gettysburg in the North Sea. Thirty-two Americans did not come off that ship.
— Written statement, the White House
The Phase II situation report delivered to the Situation Room that evening gave her loss one line, between the standoff-inventory figure and the statement that the allied deterrent remained unlocated.
"I ordered the operation she was on. Nobody else ordered it."
I have been on this app defending him for six weeks and I have taken some abuse for it, some of it deserved.
Tonight he said the one thing I needed him to say. It does not bring back thirty-two boys. I am still glad he said it and I am still not sure what I think about anything else.
Deb — I have been on the other side of you in these replies for a month.
You are right. He said it, and it was the right thing, and I am not going to take that away from him tonight.
I hope you and I are still arguing about all of this in ten years. That will mean we got to.
"Nobody else ordered it."
Forty-one days I have been shouting at this man on this app. Tonight he said the one thing that is hard to say and he said it plain.
Does not change my mind about one single decision. Changes what I think of him for about an hour. Both of those are allowed.
"I ordered the operation she was on. Nobody else ordered it."
I have been critical of every decision in this campaign and I will be again tomorrow. Tonight I will say only this: that is the correct sentence, it is the one sentence nobody in his position ever says, and thirty-two families deserved to hear it from him.
The United States Navy has lost the cruiser Gettysburg in the North Sea. Thirty-two Americans did not come off that ship. — Written statement, the White House