Hurricane – Part 2: Trump Puts Needless Lives at Risk During and After Hurricanes With Lies, Falsehoods, and Misinformation.
The short arc of a Sharpie captures the long arc of Trump - POLITICO
By NANCY COOK. 09/05/2019 06:36 PM EDT
@RalphHightower: 10/10/24 1:04 PM: With two major category hurricanes, Helene and Mitch, striking the United States in less than two weeks, it is important for voters and citizens to realize that the only person that Donald Trump cares about is, Donald Trump. Right now, FEMA, state and local relief workers and volunteers have to waste time rebutting the falsehoods and misinformation that Trump is spewing of the rescue and recovery teams on the ground.
- Trump’s Sharpie Incident: President Trump used a black Sharpie to alter a hurricane map, falsely extending Hurricane Dorian’s path to include Alabama, sparking controversy and media backlash.
- Media Feud: Trump repeatedly attacked the media for correcting his inaccurate statements about the hurricane’s path, turning it into a prolonged dispute.
- Historical Pattern: The incident reflects Trump’s long-standing approach of never backing down from false statements, a tactic he has used in both his business and political careers.
- Distraction Concerns: Meteorologists and officials expressed concern that the controversy distracted from the serious threat posed by Hurricane Dorian to the Carolinas.
“There are a lot of statements he makes to protect his base, but this is not him protecting his base. His base does not care about the hurricane,” said Barbara Res, a former executive vice president of the Trump Organization, who worked for Trump on and off from 1978 until 1998. “This is a personal thing. He just can’t be wrong.”1
The National Weather Service office in Birmingham quickly corrected him online, writing on Twitter: “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.”
As the controversy escalated with “Sharpiegate” trending on Twitter, Trump tweeted out an early map of the storm — issued days before the president’s first Alabama tweet — that did not come from the National Hurricane Center: “This was the originally projected path of the Hurricane in its early stages. As you can see, almost all models predicted it to go through Florida also hitting Georgia and Alabama. I accept the Fake News apologies!”
Just as the backlash over the hurricane gaffe appeared to die down on Thursday, Trump revived it by tweeting that “Alabama was going to be hit or grazed, and then Hurricane Dorian took a different path (up along the East Coast). The Fake News knows this very well. That’s why they’re the Fake News!”
“There is a potentially life-threatening hurricane headed for the Carolinas, and any distraction from making people aware of the potential consequences is not doing anyone a favor,” said Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization. “This is a distraction from what the official government message should be right now.”
“What is most important is that people listen to and trust the National Weather Service,” Sobien said. “I would hate it if someone from the coast of North Carolina might have gotten a mixed message.”
During the early days of Trump’s presidency, aides often would rush into the Oval Office and try to tell the president not to convey information a certain way or to inform him a fact was inaccurate. But aides soon learned Trump would inevitably tweet about it again anyway.
“It was clear it was a futile effort,” said one former senior administration official. “He has his own reality, and he will maintain that reality regardless of facts or evidence. My impression is that most people have given up on this.”
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Cue up Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain ↩