Controversial Hurricane Card: What "Sharpie

It hit the Bahamas, now hurricane "Dorian" rages on the US East Coast. For every US president, the hurricane season is traditionally a test.

And Donald Trump? Actually, the president has done his job fairly well so far. Trump used his Twitter account to spread clues from the civil protection authorities, he encouraged the victims in the Bahamas, he met for crisis meetings with his experts from the competent authority Fema.

But now threatens the president of the vortex for a black felt-tip marker to hog the whole thing. For days, Trump has been involved in a bizarre fight with several US media about whether he has leaked false information about the storm. And, like the hurricane itself, this issue does not want to end anyhow. US late-night talkers joke about "Sharpie-Gate", on Twitter the hashtag #SharpiePresident goes.

Who changed the map?

The episode seems puny, it would hardly be worth mentioning. But it is worth a closer look, because it is indicative of Trump. Once again it shows that he is completely unable to handle criticism.

It all started on Sunday when Trump tweeted that several US states on the East Coast and also the state of Alabama on the Gulf of Mexico could be affected by the hurricane "(much) more than initially thought".

His statements made for confusion, since experts and calculation models there really no longer assumed that Alabama could be severely threatened. The National Weather Service in Alabama even contradicted a few minutes later. The agency made it clear that Hurricane Alabama would not hit in any way, but would make its way along the US East Coast.

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

Was Trump misinformed? Or did he just mess up because he was not up to date?

However, the hurricane actually took a different path. Usually this would hardly have been worth mentioning. That even a president receives something contradictory statements or even makes himself, can finally happen, in this flood of information in a hurricane. No big deal, most Americans would say.

Not Trump.

The president does not want to see any mistake in the matter. Not at all. Critical reports and questions he calls angrily "Fake News". In no case does he want to appear weak. Typical Trump. It is his usual pattern of behavior when criticized. Amazing is this time but the obsession with which he pursues the subject.

As soon as reporters questioned Trump's statements from Sunday, he started a counterattack. He accused the ABC correspondents of having no idea and being "lightweights".

Then it came to the bizarre "Sharpie" scene: Trump on Wednesday in the White House in front of reporters presented a map with the predicted course of the hurricane, it looked like someone had since Alabama still with a felt-tip pen ("Sharpie") added subsequently to the areas that could be affected by the storm.

Evan Vucci / AP

The card - including additional supplement in black

When Trump was asked by reporters who added the extension by hand, he just said, "I do not know." Also employees in the White House could solve the puzzle so far not. Trump's favorite enemy CNN reports that the change was introduced just before the press conference. So maybe Trump painted or waved around on paper to justify his post-Sunday statements?

"Abnormal world of thought"

One thing is certain: until the "Sharpie" incident, hardly anyone in the US was interested in the topic. Whoever changed the card by hand, made the presumed faux pas of the President of Sunday only really big.

Trump's critics immediately struck in exultation. The incident clearly proves the serious disturbances in Trump's "abnormal world of thought," judged the (Republican) Trump opponent George Conway. And former trump ghostwriter Tony Schwartz ("The Art of the Deal") noted that it became clear how quickly Trump felt humiliated. He was a deeply insecure person. "This uncertainty dominates practical every minute of his life."

At the latest after the episode of Wednesday, it would therefore have been under normal circumstances, therefore, at the time that a president again turns to more important tasks. For example, the coordination of aid for the hurricane victims.

Not Trump.

Instead of leaving the matter alone, Trump wants to continue to prove to the entire world that he is right in any case.

He just will not let up. On Thursday, the president again released several older, official maps of the weather service via Twitter, in which Alabama is still included in the path of the storm. He tweeted triumphantly: "Just like I said, Alabama should also be affected according to original calculations."

What he did not say: The cards are unsuitable as a receipt, since they are not from the day of his statements to Alabama, but from Thursday and Friday before. If anything, the cards are more likely an indication that Trump on Sunday with his storm warning could actually have relied on outdated information, so was wrong.

Nature is not impressed by the anger of the president anyway: Hurricane "Dorian" continues to move along the US east coast - and not through Alabama.