MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Three U.S. aircraft carriers are scheduled to travel near the Korean Peninsula soon, and the military may decide to keep them in the area for maneuvers that would coincide with President Donald Trump’s coming visit to Asia, U.S. defense officials said.
It would be the first military exercise involving three U.S. carriers in the area since 2007, officials said, sending a potent message to North Korea at a time of rising tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear-weapons program…
Mr. Trump leaves at the end of the week for a two-week trip that will take him to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. White House officials say the trip is the longest that any U.S. president has taken to the region in more than two decades.
Much of the trip will revolve around the threat posed by North Korea. Mr. Trump will call on the international community to maximize pressure on North Korea during a speech to the South Korean legislature, although he won’t visit the demilitarized zone because of time constraints, a senior administration official said…
Military officials acknowledge that it is rare to have three of the U.S.’s 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in one region of the world at the same time, but should not be taken as a sign of an impending military confrontation.”
-Jonathan Cheng and Nancy A. Youssef, “U.S. Weighs Carrier Exercise During Trump Trip to Asia,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 31, 2017 08:40pm