President Donald Trump on Wednesday presented what appeared to be a crudely doctored map of Hurricane Dorian’s path, which incorrectly projected the storm hitting Alabama.
The baffling display follows up on Trump’s equally incorrect tweet from this weekend, in which he falsely claimed that Alabama would be among the states “hit (much) harder than anticipated.”
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Allow us to clear this up for you now: Alabama is not in Dorian’s path, and forecasters insist it never was.
Dorian’s earlier track had the storm barreling into the east coast of Florida, before turning north and moving inland. Now, the storm’s only grazing Florida, staying farther to the east before its expected landfall in the Carolinas.
Within an hour of Trump sending off that tweet Sunday, the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Alabama, sent out its own to clear up the confusion:
But Trump wouldn’t be corrected. When confronted on his misstatement, the president instead slammed the reporter, ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, as a “lightweight.”
Even now, Trump appears defiant over the error. On Wednesday, during an address from the Oval Office, Trump was asked about the map, which appeared to be doctored with a Sharpie marker. His response: “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.”
None of the actual maps include that weird, drawn-on extension.
It’s also unclear why Trump would be showing a week-old projection during Wednesday’s “update,” especially since Dorian has since pivoted northward.
The White House did not immediately respond to VICE News’ request for comment.
Cover: President Donald Trump holds a chart that appears to have been altered with a marker as he talks with reporters after receiving a briefing on Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
