Trump doubles down on his dangerous mistake
- On This Day In The Trump Administration
- Aug 31, 2024
- 2 min read
September 1: On This Day In 2019
As Category 5 Hurricane Dorian approached the United States, OTDI 2019, our president issued a statement advising those in harm’s way to prepare and be careful. It was exactly what a president should do in such times.
However, Trump made one small, innocent mistake. When he announced the areas of the Southeast which might be vulnerable, he erroneously included “Alabama” in the list. As you might expect, this caused thousands of people in Alabama to worry unnecessarily and begin inadvisable preparations.
Apparently Trump had relied on a forecast which was outdated by several days. It was unfortunate. But, people make mistakes all the time. What can you do about it? Well, what most people would do about it is…correct their mistake. Especially when the mistakes involve the safety of the residents of an entire state.
A normal leader, five minutes after realizing his error, would have informed the good people of Alabama: “Oops, I’m sorry, you don’t need to worry after all.”
But Trump is not a normal leader. Because he is too immature to admit he errs, he refused to take this courteous, decent act of leadership. Think about how thoughtless that is for any human to do to his fellow citizens.
Then it got worse. Not only did he not issue a simple retraction, he doubled-down on his mistake. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross forced the public servants at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to issue an unsigned statement, full of lies, essentially blaming their own NOAA colleagues for Trump’s mistake.
Let that one wash over you for a bit. NOAA, a non-partisan agency all Americans rely on to save lives in emergencies, was co-opted for political purposes by a simpleton. Think of how many people will say about the dangers of the next impending hurricane: “Trump told me NOAA is full of crap. I’m not going to believe them anymore.”
Stay tuned: This story gets even more terrible on Sept. 4
Dive Deeper
The Inspector General of the Dept of Commerce eventually issued a 107-page analysis of what had gone wrong re the pressure wrongfully applied on NOAA
ABC tells some of the story
The NYT talks about the aftermath
On This Day In The Trump Administration: Trump doubles down on his dangerous mistake, Hurricane Dorian, Alabama