Trump's Hurricane Dorian Map Looks Pretty Suspicious

During a hurricane briefing, the president held up an out-of-date map that appeared hastily altered to add Alabama to the storm path.
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It’s well known that Donald Trump doesn’t like to admit he’s wrong, but somebody may have gone to extreme lengths on Wednesday to protect his ego.

During a hurricane briefing, the president showed an old weather map suggesting Dorian was previously on track to hit Florida.

However, it appeared as if someone took a Sharpie pen to the map to draw a swoosh around southern Alabama. The alteration was presumably meant to correspond with an incorrect tweet the president posted on Saturday saying the hurricane was headed there (and which the National Weather Service had to correct in a tweet of its own).

President Donald Trump discusses the path of Hurricane Dorian on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump discusses the path of Hurricane Dorian on Wednesday.
MSNBC

The suspicious mark quickly caught the attention of various Twitter users.

The President of the United States altered a National Hurricane Center map with a sharpie to falsely extend the official forecast toward Alabama so he didn't have to admit he was wrong in a tweet. https://t.co/i0CJcYV4yq pic.twitter.com/pR57IL6WfT

— Dennis Mersereau (@wxdam) September 4, 2019

Of course, soothing the president’s fragile ego comes at a price.

It is a violation of federal law to falsify a National Weather Service forecast and pass it off as official, as President Trump did here.

18 U.S. Code § 2074: https://t.co/jvROnpSJLI pic.twitter.com/TnIuvZRJoS

— Dennis Mersereau (@wxdam) September 4, 2019

Journalists reaching out to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about the president’s map didn’t get a comment. They got something more chilling.

A NOAA spokesperson just declined to address Trump's doctored Dorian map. All questions being referred to the White House.

— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) September 4, 2019

The NOAA spokesperson is now declining to say whether Alabama was ever in Dorian's possible path.

"I just don't have it in front of me," she says.

— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) September 4, 2019

Right now we have a U.S. president sharing disinformation about a life-threatening hurricane, and a U.S. government that is declining to correct him.

— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) September 4, 2019

HuffPost reached out to the White House press office, which did not immediately respond.

When a journalist asked Trump if he altered the weather map to include Alabama, he didn’t deny the accusation entirely.

A reporter just now asks about the map Trump showed in the Oval Office today, which looked like the president may have used a Sharpie to draw a circle to intersect Alabama.

Trump ... doesn't say no.

"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know," he says.

— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) September 4, 2019
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