Trump Claims He Definitely Wasn't Mad at the Weather Guys
Hurricane Dorian blew itself out at some point off the coast of Newfoundland this week, but the incredibly stupid news cycle over President Donald Trump’s insistence that it was going to hit Alabama has not. This story, at one point, involved the president reportedly drawing on an official National Weather Service map with a Sharpie and has not gotten more high-minded since then.
In today’s latest development, Trump insisted his administration did not urge the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to rebuke its meteorologists, who publicly embarrassed him by correcting the record about the storm’s path. On Monday, the New York Times reported Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross threatened to fire NOAA officials if they didn’t “fix” their contradiction of the president.
“I never did that,” Trump said about the issue today, according to the Associated Press, calling that report just more “fake news.”
As far as the real people affected by the hurricane: Trump is doing glancingly little to help. NBC News reported this afternoon that the U.S. won’t grant temporary protected status to residents displaced by the storm, and even delivering aid remains a logistical nightmare.