The short bow of a Sharpie captures the long Trump Bow

The tone of the entire Trump presidency was captured this week with the simple sweep of a black Sharpie.

An inopportune, inaccurate but well-meaning warning from President Donald Trump earlier this week extended Thursday into a five-day presidential quarrel, turning a forgotten fact check of his words into an epic poem. attacks as president dubbed several times and dug.

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Trump's latest decision on spreading false information, blaming the media for their coverage, then turning this controversy into a seemingly useless story of several days, reminded the former and present aides and advisers of the White House, as well as the 39 to Trump's allies, all the time spent in business and government We relied on the same game book forever, never back down: whether it's the value of his real estate business or the size of the crowd when its inauguration or its declarations on Chinese tariffs.

"He makes a lot of statements to protect his base, but it is not him who protects his base. Its base makes fun of the hurricane, "said Barbara Res, a former executive vice president of the Trump Organization, who worked for Trump from 1978 to 1998." It's a personal affair. He just can not go wrong.

Thursday marked the fifth day Trump was obsessed with the idea that the state of Alabama was on the path of the terrible hurricane Dorian, which had devastated the Bahamas and was now off the southeastern coast of the states. -United.

Since Trump canceled a weekend in Poland to monitor the weather threat, news of Hurricane Dorian has dominated the president's already prolific Twitter feed. He retweeted information from national television news networks about the perceived strength of the storm, satellite images from the National Weather Service and short videos of his presence at FEMA Hurricane information sessions. Dorian. The flow of information gave the Americans the feeling that the president was keeping a close watch on the hurricane, but also that his involvement was at the center of the hurricane.

His quarrel actually began Sunday with a presidential Twitter warning mentioning Alabama among the states likely to be hit "much harder than expected".

The Office of the National Meteorological Service in Birmingham quickly corrected it online, write on Twitter: "Alabama will not see any impact of #Dorian. We repeat, no impact of the #Dorian Hurricane will be felt across Alabama. The system will stay too far to the east.

But Trump again made reference to Alabama Sunday at a personal FEMA briefing, then began to attack the media about it and fanned it on Twitter the following days.

Trump again referred to Alabama on Wednesday with some strength, showing a hurricane map – clumsily tampered with a black marker – that prolonged the trajectory of the storm in Alabama.

When reporters asked him how the Sharpie marker found himself on the printed map, Trump said, "I do not know. I do not know. I do not know."

While the controversy intensified with the "Sharpiegate" trend on Twitter, Trump tweeted a first map of the storm – aired a few days before the president's first Alabama tweet – that did not come from the National Hurricane Center: Hurricane at its beginnings. As you can see, almost every model predicted that Florida would also cross Georgia and Alabama. I accept the excuses of Fake News!

Just as the reaction around the gaff to the hurricane seemed to dissipate on Thursday, Trump revived it tweeting that "Alabama was going to be hit or scared, then hurricane" Dorian has taken a different path (along the east coast). The Fake News knows it very well. That's the reason they are the fake news! "

The country's meteorologists felt that the protracted presidential eruption was a useless diversion from a serious threat. The latest estimate from the National Hurricane Center on Thursday afternoon indicated that Dorian was approaching the coast of South Carolina, then hovering over or near the North Carolina coast on Thursday night or Friday.

"There is a potentially life-threatening hurricane in the Carolinas, and to avoid letting people know the potential consequences does not serve anyone," said Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization. "It's a distraction from the government's official message."

Sobien said that the union representing the National Meteorological Service had sent numerous calls over the last 24 hours to officials of the Meteorological Service, private sector companies and trade unionists asking how the National Meteorological Service could prevent the president. to keep repeating confusing information – or worse, undermine the factual reports of Miami-based hurricane forecasters. They regularly publish hurricane reports at least four times a day.

"The most important thing is that people listen and trust the National Meteorological Service," said Sobien. "I would hate if anyone from the North Carolina coast could have a mixed message."

A senior administration official said Trump was still talking about Alabama in the hurricane's trajectory because the state had been placed on a map cone by the National Weather Service and FEMA during a briefing presidential election in the early days of the storm. It's still unclear who drew the infamous Sharpie black line on the map displayed on the Oval Office on Wednesday, which has prolonged the potential trajectory of the hurricane in Alabama.

"If Florida was torn apart, that's what was happening," said the official. "Until now, the lives and property of the United States have been spared by what could have been worse."

Throughout Thursday, relatives and family members tweeted for the president's defense or mocked an affront on CNN in retaliation.

Thursday night, the White House published on its official letterhead the President's advisor for homeland security and the fight against terrorism, counterterrorist Peter J. Brown, about his presentations about the storm . Brown said the president's comments were based on a forecast showing the possibility of strong tropical storm winds in southeastern Alabama until Monday morning. (The official wind forecast in Alabama had dropped well before the president's warning.)

For current and former government officials, the controversy over "Sharpiegate" echoed a movie that they had all seen many times before – and for a long time she was immune.

It started with the inauguration of Trump and the president who insisted on the size of the crowd, even though the photographs showed empty stands and a scene of the National Mall not as full as Trump would have liked compared to the inauguration of his predecessor.

More recently, the same thing happened for Trump's tariffs on China, whose economic burden, the president said, is fully supported by China. (US consumers, businesses, farmers and Wall Street are also feeling the effects, according to multiple economic data and forecasts.)

Even during his work days, Trump repeats the statements that his organization's leaders knew to be false, said Res – like telling people that Princess Diana was preparing to take an apartment at Trump Tower or to inflate his figures when he was trying to sell.

"He would tell his ridiculous lies to the staff and, after a while, no one would have told him a word," said Res, adding that she had never seen Trump come back in public after a misleading statement.

During the early days of Trump's presidency, assistants often rushed into the oval office and tried to tell the president not to pass on certain information or to inform him that a fact was inaccurate. But the assistants soon learned that Trump would inevitably tweet about it anyway.

"It was clear that it was a futile effort," said a former senior administration official. "He has his own reality and he will keep it independent of facts or evidence. My impression is that most people have abandoned that. "

On Thursday, White House staff mostly shrugged and continued their day, so accustomed to the president's style of operation.