Now a rear admiral is trying to help Trump convince people he was right about Dorian threatening Alabama

President Trump's obsession with being proven right about his Alabama hurricane tweet has now strengthened to a Category 5.

Here's a brief background: Trump tweeted on Sunday that Alabama was at risk of being hit by Hurricane Dorian. It wasn't, and the National Weather Service's Birmingham office quickly cleared this up. Trump doubled down, saying he was right, and on Wednesday, the White House tweeted a video of Trump with a map that had clearly been altered to make it look like Alabama could have been hit by Dorian. Trump then tweeted a map that he said showed "almost all models predicted [Dorian] to go through Florida also hitting Georgia and Alabama." The map was from Aug. 28, making it outdated by the time Trump sent his first Alabama tweet on Sunday. Also, it did not actually show almost all models predicting that the hurricane would hit Alabama.

On Thursday, Trump enlisted Rear Admiral Peter J. Brown, his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, to release a statement saying he briefed the president "multiple times concerning the position, forecast, risks, and federal government preparations for and response to Hurricane Dorian." Brown said they looked over all sorts of maps and models and graphics, and Trump's Sunday statement was accurate based on that morning's briefing. Let's see what happens tomorrow, when Steve from the White House mailroom weighs in.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up