Trump Insists His Hurricane Warning Was Right Even After NWS Corrected Him

Ed Mazza

Updated September 3, 2019 at 2:14 AM

Trump Insists His Hurricane Warning Was Right Even After NWS Corrected Him

President Donald Trump on Monday insisted he was right to warn Alabama of a nonexistent hurricane threat and attacked a TV reporter who pointed out the fact that the state was not at risk from Dorian.

“Such a phony hurricane report,” he declared on Twitter as he railed at Jon Karl of ABC News for reporting on his erroneous warning.

Trump had claimed in a tweet on Sunday that Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama “will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.”

He made a similar claim about Alabama in televised comments.

The false alarm caused the National Weather Service to issue a correction, albeit without mentioning the president. About 20 minutes after Trump’s warning, the agency tweeted:

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. #alwx
— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) September 1, 2019

The president said on Monday that he was right because Alabama was facing a hurricane threat “under certain original scenarios.”

However, Trump on Sunday did not refer to “certain original scenarios” but instead said after a Federal Emergency Management Agency briefing that “this just came up, unfortunately” as he spoke about a supposed threat to Alabama.

In reality, the projections at that point did not show any path that would bring the storm to Alabama. Dorian was instead tracking further east.

The storm is currently off the coast of Florida and expected to move along the coast, with Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia all facing potential threat in the coming days.

Twitter users called out the president for trying to save face instead of focusing on ensuring correct emergency information gets to the people who need it:

Who you gonna believe, me or the lying National Weather Service office? pic.twitter.com/ON9i0qStaJ
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) September 2, 2019

Trump is angry the press points out his dumb comment that Dorian will hit Alabama. He’s angry the G7 doesn’t want Putin among its numbers.

He’s not angry about the epidemic of gun violence, the climate emergency or Russian attacks on our election system.
— Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) September 3, 2019

You tweeted it out and the weather service had to correct you. Why can you never admit to a mistake?

I'm starting to think you did mistake Alabama for the Bahamas. pic.twitter.com/d8zn2rOrEc
— D Villella ❄️ (@dvillella) September 2, 2019

Is it possible that trump thinks Alabama is along the east coast?
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) September 3, 2019

Alabama is HERE, guy (red arrow).

We know you have trouble with words, numbers, math, names, spelling, grammar, science, ethics, complete sentences, marital fidelity, etc.

But it's one of the states that voted for you bigly. Shouldn't you know where it IS at least? SAD. pic.twitter.com/JGEEHEqwE0
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) September 3, 2019

The President gets schooled.
Again.
Schmuck. https://t.co/pOgzdqFhQu
— andy lassner (@andylassner) September 3, 2019

I mean... the NWS tweeted this literally 20 minutes after you (falsely) tweeted that Alabama would be hit... because, unlike you, they didn't want to start a panic. https://t.co/oKUSz7ItHD
— Pé Resists (@4everNeverTrump) September 2, 2019

This is a story about President Trump spreading false info during an emergency situation. Not once or twice -- three times.https://t.co/1XOYGkMhMh
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 3, 2019

The Birmingham office of the @NWS had to give reassurance on Sunday after President Trump mistakenly told millions on Twitter that those in Alabama were in the path of “one of the largest hurricanes ever.”

No model at all shows Alabama getting hit by #Dorian.

Woopsie. 😬 pic.twitter.com/Sd2F1NeGX3
— Brent Watts (@wattsupbrent) September 1, 2019