Trump's performance provides guesswork: "Who manipulated the hurricane card?"

It started - again - on Twitter: Last Sunday, US President Donald Trump wrote that even the state of Alabama could be hit very hard by hurricane "Dorian". However, this statement was in conflict with the official predictions of the National Hurricane Center.

About 20 minutes after Trump's tweet - and after initial criticism of the presidential presumptive scare became loud - the official Alabama meteorological service told Twitter: "Alabama will not feel any effects from 'Dorian'."

Alabama wants NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian wants to be felt across Alabama. The system will stay too far east. #alwx

Since then, Trump has defended his statement several times. And the story goes on. On Wednesday, at a briefing in the Oval Office, Trump presented an official map of the National Hurricane Center with "Dorian's" likely course, as of 11 am on 29 August. And on the map was apparently subsequently with a black felt-tip pen ("Sharpie"), the area of ​​the possible storm spread increased - so even Alabama is included.

"This happened to cover up the Alabama Twitter blunder," asks the Washington Post. "Politico" is the talk of an "Oval Office puzzle: Who manipulated the hurricane card?" Other media and numerous Twitter users comment on the "Sharpie" incident.

Evan Vucci / AP

The card - including additional supplement in black

At a White House appearance, Trump was asked on Wednesday by journalists how the modified map had come about. "I do not know, I do not know," he said. At the same time he defended his statement: An early hurricane forecast would have shown with 95 percent probability that Alabama would also be affected. But that was not the case, Trump admitted. "Alabama should have been hit hard."

In fact, the official graphics of the National Hurricane Center did not predict any significant impact of the storm on Alabama at any time. On Sunday, when Trump first brought Alabama into the conversation, the maps clearly showed a predicted course along the southeastern US coast, not towards Alabama.

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To prove his position, Trump then published a map of a local weather office on Wednesday evening (local time), where various models also showed a low probability of an arrival of the storm in Alabama. However, this map, along with the predicted hurricane trajectories, is according to The Washington Post of 28 August, dating back to Alabama four days before its first tweet. When he published it, Alabama had not played any role in any of the hurricane predictions. Nevertheless, Trump wrote now with regard to critical media reports: "I accept the apologies of the 'Fake News'."

Hurricane Dorian moved further south of the US coast off Georgia on Wednesday night to hit South Carolina on Thursday - the first time the hurricane hit the country. "Dorian" had previously hit the northern Bahamas and caused severe devastation there.