We live in an increasingly unsafe and unpredictable world. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un helps make it that way. This is not a rational, mature individual. He appears to have ordered the assassination of his own half-brother in February. He likes to launch nuclear-capable, long-range missiles to celebrate events like his birthday. This is not someone to be toyed with.

On April 12, President Donald Trump responded to a series of North Korean provocations by stating that an "armada," the USS Carl Vinson carrier group, was steaming to the Korean Peninsula. The administration said all options remained on the table to deal with the North Korean nuclear threat.

In truth, the carrier group was headed away from the Korean Peninsula toward a destination 3,500 miles to the southwest, with plans to participate in joint exercises with Australia's navy. After that fact was made public in a New York Times report, the Vinson turned around and began heading toward Korea.

"We have an armada going toward the peninsula. That's a fact," White House spokesman Sean Spicer stated Wednesday, an entire week after the president inaccurately made the same assertion.

As is typical of Trump's administration when it faces embarrassment, the White House tried to blame the Pentagon for mixed-up communication. When a military mission in Yemen wound up killing large numbers of civilians along with a Navy SEAL in January, Trump also blamed "the generals" instead of taking ownership of his command decision.

Can Americans — or the world — believe the White House anymore? If Trump really means business on curtailing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, faking the world out with lies about naval deployments is the worst possible way to present a credible threat.

Even South Korea, which is in the middle of a presidential campaign following the impeachment and indictment of former President Park Geun-hye, was fooled by the administration's declaration.

South Korea stakes its very survival on a U.S. pledge to defend it against North Korean aggression. "If that was a lie, then during Trump's term, South Korea will not trust whatever Trump says," Hong Joon-pyo, a presidential candidate, told The Wall Street Journal.

If this were simply a one-off gaffe by Trump, it might be excusable. But he has a lengthy record of stretching the truth and making exaggerated assertions that subject this nation to ridicule abroad. Russia clearly wants to test this president's seriousness, which explains its multiple attempts to skirt U.S. airspace over Alaska with nuclear-capable bombers this week.

Enough with the bluster and hyperbole, Mr. President. In a world where the nuclear threat is resurgent and the Cold War has been rekindled, this nation cannot afford to have its security endangered by someone who treats the truth as little more than a pesky technicality.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH