CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem is the author of "Security Mom: My Life Protecting the Home and Homeland." She is a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration and CEO of Zemcar. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) In theory, there is nothing objectionable about the White House's plan to send a message from President Trump to virtually every cell phone in the country. The message is a test of a warning system -- created under President Barack Obama in 2016 -- designed to alert the public about national emergencies.

There is no opting out. Most people with a cell phone — turned on and within range of a cell phone tower -- will receive a "presidential alert" text at 2:18 p.m. ET on October 3.

As broadcast TV and land-based phone lines become obsolete, our homeland security apparatus needs to keep up with current technology. This test should be seen as a positive step, bringing crisis communications into the wireless era.

But some are not seeing it that way -- and it's the Trump administration's fault. By continually and bitterly politicizing things that shouldn't be political, like natural disasters, journalism, the criminal-justice system, you name it -- Trump and his followers have fanned growing fears that everything they do is about partisan advantage. It's understandable that people believe this cell phone test is just another authoritarian attempt by Trump to bully his way into our daily lives.

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So, let's be clear. The statute that Obama signed into law allows for this national communication only when the event "relate(s) to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety." It cannot be used for political purposes. It gives a president the capability to direct the public, should they need guidance or knowledge of an event of such national consequence, just as is tested on televisions with the Emergency Alert System.

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