RENTON, Wash. (AP) — After answering six minutes' worth of questions about why the Seattle Seahawks are working on a contract with cornerback Terrion Arnold, coach Mike Macdonald was asked about the team’s preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday.
Macdonald made it clear he was not ducking inquiries about Arnold, who is facing eight felony charges stemming from allegations he orchestrated the abduction and beating of three men in February. The 23-year-old became a free agent in June, when the Detroit Lions released him a few days after the kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy charges were levied.
“I understand the situation,” Macdonald said Friday. “So, I’m glad that we had the opportunity to talk about it.”
Macdonald explained why the reigning Super Bowl champions felt compelled to add Arnold, who prosecutors in Florida said arranged for men to be pistol-whipped after he wrongly suspected them of stealing $100,000 in cash and luxury goods from him.
Police called Arnold the “primary conspirator” in the Feb. 4 attack, and a judge set his bail at $1 million.
Defense attorney R. Timothy Jansen said in Hillsborough County court earlier this summer that Arnold is “absolutely denying these allegations.” Denise White, the CEO of EAG Sports Management, an agency that represents Arnold, said there’s “no credible evidence” against him, only accounts from others who may have an incentive to get a lighter sentence.
“We also understand that it’s a serious situation with a legal matter,” Macdonald said. “There’s a process behind it, so we respect that. And, that’s how we’ll operate, too, is just letting that process play out. And, let the league decide if and when his return to play is. And we’ll just kind of understand that that’s at play.”
Macdonald said the timetable for the NFL ruling on Arnold’s eligibility for the 2026 season is still being worked out. To Macdonald’s understanding, Arnold visited at least eight teams, and it is unclear when he will join the Seahawks.
“We have an agreement with him, and we’ll see,” Macdonald said. “But I just really don’t know how we’re going to do it.”
Should Arnold be permitted to play for the Seahawks this season, he could bolster what was arguably the NFL’s best defense last season. No team allowed fewer points per game (17.2), and Seattle finished in the top seven in the league in sacks and interceptions.
Arnold should add depth to a secondary that lost cornerback Riq Woolen to free agency and has been without second-year safety Nick Emannwori, who had offseason ankle surgery, during training camp.
Arnold has played in 25 NFL games, including playoffs, since the Lions took him with the 24th pick of the 2024 draft out of Alabama.
“We think his skill set fits in our secondary,” Macdonald said. “He plays with a lot of energy, physicality. ... And then, personality-wise, I think there’s an opportunity there if he’s the best version of himself that he could be a fit for us.”
A number of Seahawks players have already spent plenty of time around Arnold.
Backup quarterback Jalen Milroe and fullback Robbie Ouzts were college teammates of Arnold for three seasons at Alabama. Cornerback Josh Jobe overlapped with Arnold for one season with the Crimson Tide.
Macdonald also said the Seahawks' decision-makers held informal, one-on-one conversations with some team leaders. He also spoke highly of his discussion with Arnold during his visit on Sunday.
Macdonald did not get into specifics, but said the Seahawks leaned on people who could vouch for Arnold’s character before deciding to offer him a deal.
“It’s overwhelmingly positive. It really is,” Macdonald said. “And, again, it’s a serious situation, that there’s allegations there that are serious. But, if you separate that from the person that they talk about on a daily basis and their history with him, it’s been really overwhelmingly positive.”
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FILE - Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold reacts to a play against the Green Bay Packers during an NFL football game in Detroit, Nov. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald speaks during a press availability after the NFL football team's training camp, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll on American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea on the USS Abraham Lincoln as concerns escalated about mental health and supply issues aboard the aircraft carrier supporting U.S. operations against Iran.
In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment’s length and even said that the deployment — which includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days — is “not nearly long enough.”
"That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump said when asked about the lengthy deployment. The acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, said the Lincoln “will return home soon” in a social media post on Friday.
Trump strode into office for a second term vowing to avoid lengthy and expensive military entanglements. And after launching the Iran war, alongside Israel, Trump and his advisers said the conflict would last a matter of weeks. The war is now more than five months old.
But on Friday, during his crime address in Garden City, New York, he acknowledged that he's used the U.S. military “a little bit more than I wanted to," while asserting anew that the U.S. operation against Iran is going well. He even said, seemingly in jest, that “pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”
“I’ll never apologize," Trump added about the war and its impact on oil prices. “I did the right thing.”
Extended deployments of carriers during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as the increasing strain on the ships and their equipment.
Several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the Lincoln, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were “completely misrepresented.”
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment before being elected, took to social media to criticize Trump’s comments, saying on X that “President Trump does not care about our servicemembers or their families."
Top Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have requested a classified briefing on the ship’s food inventory, sanitation issues and healthcare availability, as well as an assessment of how much longer it would be deployed before relief arrives.
Republicans have been less outspoken about the situation on the Lincoln. The GOP chairmen of the House and Senate armed services committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war. Hegseth said the U.S. military can maintain the blockage of Iranian ports “indefinitely.”
Another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, and is expected to replace the USS Lincoln, one of two aircraft carriers currently deployed in the Middle East.
After reports emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns, the Navy said it has “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship,” though officials have declined to provide data, citing operational security and patient privacy concerns.
A Navy official said a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August but the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say whether it was being considered a suicide attempt.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, has also pushed back on reports about poor conditions.
AP writers Collin Binkley in Garden City, New York, and Michelle L. Price and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to show that the USS Abraham Lincoln has spent more than 240 days of uninterrupted time at sea and its overall deployment has exceeded 260 days.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
