--- title: Donald Trump's North Korea 'Armada': Where It Actually Went description: Sean Spicer defended the White House's inaccurate claims that a U.S. aircraft carrier was headed toward North Korea last week canonical: https://time.com/4747327/donald-trump-north-korea-armada/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-19T22:39:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T12:23:06.508Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's Where President Trump's North Korea 'Armada' Actually Went og:description: Sean Spicer defended Trump's claim on Wednesday og:url: https://time.com/4747327/donald-trump-north-korea-armada/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt142d4ef79f21978f/6988c3acab6d77eb3c6adb89/uss-carl-vinson.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: USS Carl Vinson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Where President Trump's North Korea 'Armada' Actually Went twitter:description: Sean Spicer defended Trump's claim on Wednesday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt142d4ef79f21978f/6988c3acab6d77eb3c6adb89/uss-carl-vinson.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Where President Trump's North Korea 'Armada' Actually Went > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) and [Joyce Lee](https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/) Apr 19, 2017 10:39 PM UTC  In this handout provided by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) transits the Sunda Strait on April 14, 2017 in Indonesia. In this handout provided by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) transits the Sunda Strait on April 14, 2017 in Indonesia. U.S. Navy—2017 U.S. Navy by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) and [Joyce Lee](https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/) Apr 19, 2017 10:39 PM UTC Sean Spicer on Wednesday defended the White House’s inaccurate claims that a U.S. aircraft carrier was [headed toward North Korea](http://time.com/4745809/donald-trump-armada-north-korea/) last week, noting that the ship was heading there now. “The statement that was put out was that the Carl Vinson group was headed towards the Korean Peninsula. It is headed to the Korean Peninsula. That’s not what we ever said. It was heading there, it is heading there,” he said during a press briefing. Although President Trump bragged on April 12 that he had [sent an “armada” to North Korea](http://time.com/4735853/donald-trump-north-korea-fox-business-interview/) as a warning, the aircraft carrier strike group he was referring to was actually headed toward Australia to complete a previously scheduled training. A photo from the U.S. Navy published April 17 showed the ship traveling through the Sunda Strait and then into the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles away from the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. military’s Pacific Command said on Tuesday that the strike group was now “proceeding to the Western Pacific as ordered.” Watch the video above to see where the aircraft carrier actually went. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4747327/donald-trump-north-korea-armada/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4747327/donald-trump-north-korea-armada/"},"headline":"Here's Where President Trump's North Korea 'Armada' Actually Went","datePublished":"2017-04-19T22:39:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T12:23:06.508Z","description":"Sean Spicer defended Trump's claim on Wednesday","url":"https://time.com/4747327/donald-trump-north-korea-armada/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt142d4ef79f21978f/6988c3acab6d77eb3c6adb89/uss-carl-vinson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Joyce Lee","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt142d4ef79f21978f/6988c3acab6d77eb3c6adb89/uss-carl-vinson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"USS Carl Vinson","caption":"USS Carl Vinson","creditText":"U.S. Navy—2017 U.S. Navy","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4747327/donald-trump-north-korea-armada/","name":"Here's Where President Trump's North Korea 'Armada' Actually Went"}}]}] ```