Administration denies misleading on carrier

Ship was said to be heading to N. Korea but was in Indian Ocean

WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials on Wednesday denied misleading the public about the location of an aircraft carrier and whether it was redeployed as a show of strength against North Korea.

The whereabouts of the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, and its accompanying strike group were swept up last week in an intensifying standoff between the United States and Pyongyang, which Washington has warned is risking American military action by pushing ahead with its disputed nuclear and missile programs.

As North Korea escalated its war of words with Washington, President Donald Trump declared last week that he was “sending an armada, very powerful” toward the Asian nation. He, like other officials, made that assertion after U.S. Pacific Command’s April 9 announcement that the ship was headed from Singapore toward the western Pacific, part of a U.S. response to tensions with Pyongyang.

But news early this week that the ship at the time was actually in the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles to the southwest, triggered speculation that the Trump administration, eager to illustrate its hawkish stance on a range of national security issues, was using deceptive means to send a message to Pyongyang.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer, during his daily media briefing Wednesday, disputed the notion that the administration had led anyone astray.

“What part is misleading? I’m trying to figure that out,” Spicer said. “We were asked a question about what signal sent. We answered the question on what signal it sent. I’m not the one who commented on timing.”

But military officials struggled to give a firm answer for why officials from the Pentagon and other agencies failed to correct at least a week of widespread media reports stating that the ship was already headed north toward the Korean Peninsula.

According to officials, the misperception began after U.S. Pacific Command (Pacom) made its April 9 announcement, which stated that the ship would cancel scheduled stops in Australia and head toward the “Western Pacific” from Singapore. Although the statement did not mention North Korea explicitly, Pacom officials made reference the same day to Pacom’s focus on North Korea in comments to reporters, drawing a link between the redirection of the ship and the nuclear threat.

As media outlets reported widely on the deployment, senior officials made comments in the following days that reinforced the belief that the ship was already headed in the direction of North Korea. On April 11, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, asked about the Vinson during a news conference, said the ship was “on her way up there.” The next day, Trump made his comments in a television interview.