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U.S. President Donald Trump (R) references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan while talking to reporters following a briefing from officials about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House September 04, 2019 in Washington, DC. The map was a forecast from August 29 and appears to have been altered by a black marker to extend the hurricane’s range to include Alabama.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images
President Donald Trump has spent days complaining about how the media has covered a doctored hurricane map he displayed — and his campaign is cashing in on the controversy.
The Trump Make America Great Again Committee is selling sets of five “Official Donald Trump Fine Point Markers” for $15.
The controversy stemmed from Trump’s Sept. 1 tweet claiming Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian, which hit the North Carolina coast as a Category 1 storm Friday.
Critics and weather analysts pointed out the storm was in fact not projected to hit Alabama, but Trump continued to insist that he was right.
“In the early days of the hurricane, when it was predicted that Dorian would go through Miami or West Palm Beach, even before it reached the Bahamas, certain models strongly suggested that Alabama & Georgia would be hit as it made its way through Florida & to the Gulf,” Trump tweeted on Thursday. “Instead it turned North and went up the coast, where it continues now.”
On Wednesday, Trump in the Oval Office showed an old storm projection map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that appeared to have been doctored with black Sharpie markings that put Alabama in the path of the storm.
This isn’t the first time the Trump campaign sought to raise funds by trolling. In July, the campaign offered plastic straws in packs of 10, in opposition to Democrat-led cities and corporations banning the sale or use of plastic straws in favor of paper ones. The plastic straws, bright red and branded with the Trump logo, quickly sold out.
