Sharpiegate

I don’t know which surprises me more, that Donald Trump didn’t produce a map he had thrown actual spaghetti at, or that he didn’t hire hack cultist, propagandist, and conspiracy theorist Ben Garrison to draw him a new one.

In the middle of last week, there were spaghetti models showing possible tracks for Hurricane Dorian that stretched from Louisiana to New England. By Sunday, the National Weather Service was forecasting Dorian to move up the coast of Florida to the Carolinas.

Last Sunday, Trump tweeted a false claim that Alabama was at risk from Dorian. Experts pointed out he was wrong and that Alabama was NOT going to feel any impact from the hurricane. Trump got butthurt and started attacking reporters and meteorologists for pointing out his error, and for trying to provide accurate information during an impending disaster to the American public.

Wednesday, Trump tweeted out an old spaghetti model showing potential impacts to Alabama, but it was from LAST Wednesday. By Sunday, when he said Alabama was at risk, it wasn’t. Typically, when a mature adult makes a mistake like this, they own it and everyone moves on. As we’ve come to learn about Donald Trump, the president of the United States is NOT an adult and he NEVER moves on.

Yesterday in the Oval Office, Trump trotted out a graph from last week produced by the National Weather Service which someone had amateurishly extended the hurricane’s path toward Alabama. It looked almost like someone had doctored the weather map with a big Sharpie, the type a petty narcissist would use to create a giant, obnoxious signature, then display it to everyone in the room like a toddler proud to show off he finally made boom-boom in the potty by himself.

When asked later about the doctored image, Trump claimed he didn’t know who had scrawled on the map, like a baby who made a boom-boom in your hat. Sources from within the White House say an aide did it while others claim it was drawn by Trump himself.

Trump was wrong about Alabama being in danger and he won’t let it go. Now, everyone who works for him has to lie and try to make his position not sound insane. There are two reasons why he won’t let it.

The first reason is that his tweet claiming Alabama was in danger shows he was not “fully engaged” on the hurricane while he was playing golf. His tweet showed his focus was elsewhere, like the back nine. This is a man who attacked Obama for playing golf and claimed he never would as president. Instead, that’s another lie as he’s played golf at least 227 times at one of his resorts (in case you’re a Republican, 227 is more than zero). Say what you will about when Obama played golf, but he never sent out inaccurate information during a national crisis while doing so.

Another reason Trump won’t let it go is that he’s a narcissist. Narcissists can’t admit they were wrong, which is something that’s not a big deal for most people. But when a president is wrong about information during a national disaster, he may be putting lives at risk. But then again, his entire presidency has been one big campaign based on fear.

Trump has managed to make a national disaster a bigger disaster. Somewhere, George Bush’s FEMA director, Mike Brown, is saying, “Damn.”

For one thing, it’s against federal law to knowingly issue or publish any counterfeit weather forecasts that falsely represent an official forecast by government entities like the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center. The penalty may be fines and even jail time. Not that Trump will be held responsible, of course. Hell, his attorney general is shelling out $30,000 to hold a party at his hotel (and if you haven’t been invited to the Bill Barr Trump party, congratulations!).

Trump also tweeted another lie during this hurricane. He claimed he was making a federal disaster declaration for North Carolina as requested by that state’s senator, Thom Tillis. That is a lie. Only governors have the authority to request a federal disaster declaration for their state. North Carolina’s governor is a Democrat. Tillis is a Republican. Trump has managed to make a hurricane partisan, which isn’t the first time. You didn’t see Obama giving credit to a New Jersey Democratic senator for the disaster declaration during Hurricane Sandy. No. That request was made by Chris Christie, a Republican. Christie even hugged Obama.

Trump also claimed that China would pay for hurricane relief. Seriously. He believes tariffs from his trade war will be paid by China and go directly to farmers in the Carolinas. Again, seriously. Here, Trump is lying and once again demonstrating he doesn’t understand how the economy, tariffs, or government works. Americans pay tariffs in this country, not China. The president can’t decide where the money from those tariffs will be spent. That’s Congress’ job unless of course, the Supreme Court decides to just chuck out the Constitution.

People who lie can be laughable. They can also be dangerous. A person who constantly lies about the little things won’t have any qualms about the big things. And narcissists who can’t admit they made an error, made a mistake, or committed a slight boo-boo, are always wrong.

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