Donald Trump is obviously "fact" challenged

Echo opinion published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch by Editorial Board

Last summer, Trump mistakenly warned that Hurricane Dorian threatened the Alabama coast. Days later, rather than admit error, he displayed a government weather map clumsily altered with a Sharpie marker, as if to confirm his erroneous claim. 

In a postscript, a federal watchdog last week chided the administration for threatening government scientists who had the audacity to contradict Trump with facts.

“Sharpiegate” today looks like an early harbinger of what would later go so wrong with America’s pandemic response: Now, as then, this Trump ignores science and puts his personal interests above the good of the nation. Worse, people around him — people who clearly know better — (ugh!) enable this dangerous behavior.

On Sept. 1, Trump tweeted a warning that Dorian would hit Alabama “harder than anticipated.” In fact, the storm wasn’t on track to hit Alabama at all (!); Trump’s warning was based on outdated information. Honest mistake. About 10 minutes later, the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, fielding panicked calls from the public, tweeted that “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian.”

That’s where it should have ended. But according to a new government watchdog report, top federal officials had to divert their attention from the approaching hurricane to focus instead on soothing a bruised presidential ego — to the point of threatening the weather officials.

It “appears as if the National Weather Service intentionally contradicted the president,” then-White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said in an email to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the watchdog report states. “And we need to know why. [Trump] wants either a correction or an explanation or both.”

The obvious response should have been, Well, the president was mistaken. But Trump, bizarrely, cannot admit making even the smallest error, ever. So weather officials were warned that “there are jobs on the line,” according to the report.

Ultimately, the administration issued a statement that the weather office shouldn’t have said Alabama was safe. Even though it was.
The report, by Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson, concluded the administration “unnecessarily rebuked NWS forecasters for issuing a public safety message about Hurricane Dorian in response to public inquiries — that is, for doing their jobs.” She warned it could undercut public confidence in weather experts during future storms, potentially endangering the public.

As Trump has demonstrated repeatedly during the pandemic, he couldn’t care less about endangering the public. Just as he’d rather undermine trust in weather experts than admit a small error, he’d rather let the coronavirus engulf America than admit his response to the crisis has failed and needs to change.

This isn’t just a matter of outsized ego. As indicated by Sharpiegate — and as confirmed by Trump’s pandemic misinformation, his dangerous reopening demands and his maskless rallies — there is something psychologically wrong with this president. But what is the excuse of the Mulvaneys and Rosses of this administration?

Donald Trump is a dangerously failed leader - echo opinion

This opinion letter from Oklahoma was published in Tulsa World:

Letter to the Editor: Trump’s Alabama Sharpie map erodes trust with Americans- he is dangerous.

#Sharpiegate Trump

On Sept. 1, 2019, Donald Trump tweeted a warning that Alabama would be among the areas “most likely” to be hit by Hurricane Dorian. About 20 minutes later, the National Weather Service in Birmingham tweeted: "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian." (Hurricane Dorian)

On Sept. 4, Donald Trump gave a (stupiud!) news conference with a map obviously altered with a Sharpie to show that the extended Dorian’s projected cone went into the southeastern corner of Alabama.

This hand-drawn addition indicated the storm would move from Florida into Alabama and made it appear Trump’s Sunday tweet was correct, despite national weather officials and updated forecasts saying otherwise.


There are lives that can be lost if a president does not consider and rely on experts in making decisions and pronouncements.

Everyone makes errors, especially Donald Trump. But, further compounding an error with an obvious misstatement leads one to question whether that president should continue making the momentous decisions needed for the job.

In October 1962, President John F. Kennedy announced we were blockading Cuba because nuclear ballistic missiles were being installed there by Russia. Americans believed Kennedy and stood by him.

If Trump were to make a similar announcement that had grave implications on the continuance of life in America, would you believe him and stand by him? If not, that - in and of itself - is a serious (and dangerous!) problem.

John L. Harlan, Tulsa, Oklahoma