WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, not someone who easily lets things go, doubled down on Thursday on his insistence that Alabama could have been hit by Hurricane Dorian and enlisted his top homeland security adviser to back him up.
On Wednesday, the president displayed a map of the storm’s projected path that appeared to have been altered with a Sharpie pen to include the state of Alabama, following his remarks on Sunday in which he said it could be affected by the storm.
In fact, the National Hurricane Center’s advisory on Sunday morning did not include the state, and the National Weather Service denied that Alabama would be affected after Trump suggested initial projections showed the storm heading toward the Gulf of Mexico, where Alabama has a coastline.
“Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east,” the National Weather Service in Alabama tweeted.
News reports about the discrepancies and about the apparently Sharpie-edited map exploded on social media – the term #SharpiePresident was trending on Twitter – prompting Trump to fire back.
“Just as I said, Alabama was originally projected to be hit. The Fake News denies it!” Trump, using his preferred pejorative for the media, tweeted along with a collection of maps on Thursday afternoon. “I was with you all the way Alabama. The Fake News Media was not!”
