How not to announce a ship deployment

It shouldn’t be this hard.

Instead, with one ill-advised email on Sunday night, the White House had some folks believing that President Trump was going to war with Iran (or at least, some of his opponents proclaimed he was). He isn’t. But he sure gave some Americans and allies a fright. And the Trump administration’s national security team from the White House to the Pentagon gave us the latest and most alarming example of why the world needs a good interagency process and some competent public affairs officials in those government agencies, and fast.

In what at first seemed an attempt to sound tough on Tehran, the administration turned what was a routine ship deployment into, seemingly, a major movement toward war. It’s unusual for any top official, much less someone at the White House, to announce ship movements. It’s unheard of to do it in the manner that has unfolded since Sunday. That’s when reporters first received a White House-emailed statement from National Security Advisor John Bolton, around 8:30 p.m…