On Wednesday, his Alabama argument returned with full force. The president tweeted an "ensemble" of a spaghetti plot created by the South Florida Water Management District. He tweeted that it showed "models" of where the hurricane would go, but it actually aggregates different statistical, atmospheric, and historic models that do not necessarily indicate a storm's path.
In addition to Trump's incorrect interpretation, the map did not stem from the NHC, and was not intended to supersede the weather maps intended for political and public use. There is a warning label at the bottom that says to disregard the plot if it causes confusion. It was also dated August 28, several days before the forecast changed.
Meanwhile, during a briefing at the White House on Wednesday, Trump produced a map of an earlier Dorian trajectory that a photo on his administration's Flickr page showed had been presented to the president during an August 29 briefing.
In the initial photos, the map displayed an earlier forecast, but still not one that included Alabama in Dorian's path. In the Wednesday briefing, Trump was photographed with the map, which had been altered via a Sharpie marker to include Alabama in the outdated forecast. A White House spokesperson confirmed on Twitter that a Sharpie marker was used.
By Wednesday, the altered map Trump displayed was six days out of date. Not only was it misinformation, but the president and his administration may have broken federal law in doing so, because it is illegal to knowingly publish counterfeit weather forecasts.
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! pic.twitter.com/0uCT0Qvyo6
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2019
Absolutely right @realDonaldTrump! Watching the media go ballistic over a black sharpie mark on a map would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad. The real news that matters here is a deadly hurricane continues up the coast and tens millions of Americans could be greatly impacted. https://t.co/SceSOeuyO5
— Hogan Gidley (@hogangidley45) September 5, 2019