

President Trump addressed members of the U.S. Navy and shipyard workers aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford Thursday. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The Trump White House sold the president's travel ban as an urgent measure to protect the nation against an attack that could be perpetrated at any moment. But with the original version suspended by a federal judge, the administration suddenly appears less anxious about terror threats and more concerned about maximizing media exposure for a yet-t0-be-released revision.

It has been almost a month since U.S. District Judge James L. Robart halted implementation of President Trump's executive order prohibiting entry to the United States for citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries and refugees from around the world. That's almost a month of the United States existing in a state of constant danger — if you go by the White House's characterization of global affairs when the first executive order was signed.

Asked in a Jan. 30 interview on MSNBC why Trump had moved so quickly to sign the order, press secretary Sean Spicer said "there was a very short period of time in which we had something to execute that ensured that the people of the United States were safe."

Spicer clarified that U.S. intelligence agencies had not detected a specific threat but said: "Do you wait until you do? The answer is you act now to protect the future."

The new answer seems to be that the White House will act when the media moment is right. Trump had planned to unveil a revised order on Wednesday but held off amid a wave of largely positive coverage of his address to Congress Tuesday night. Politico, citing unnamed administration officials, reported that the president didn't want to divide the media's attention:

One of the officials indicated that the delay was due to the busy news cycle, and that when Trump does sign the revised order, he wanted it to get plenty of attention. "We need [the executive order] to have its own time to breathe," the official said.

In a similar report, CNN quoted an unnamed official who said the White House wanted the new order "to have its own moment."

[Trump argues for revised travel ban by citing attacks carried out by U.S. citizens]

As the White House spent Thursday dealing with a Washington Post report about mid-campaign meetings between then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Russia's ambassador to the United States, the new travel ban remained shelved another day.

Waiting does make sense, from a media strategy perspective. And trying to manage news cycles to your advantage is not unique to this White House.

But, this delay in implementing the second immigration executive order reveals that the White House does not really consider the order so vital to national security that it must be in place as soon as possible.

It seems that it doesn't actually require immediate implementation; what it needs is a chance to dominate the news.