Trump 'hyperactively tries to create his own reality': WaPo columnist scorches 'obviously ridiculous' Sharpie stunt

On Wednesday, Philip Bump penned a biting op-ed in the Washington Post, castigating President Donald Trump for bringing out a Sharpie-doctored hurricane map to support his false claim that Hurricane Dorian was threatening Alabama.

"It’s not clear that Trump is the one who drew that little loop, though it wouldn’t be terribly surprising. His affinity for marking up documents with black marker is well-known. Asked about it by reporters, he didn’t say that he wasn’t the one who had altered it," wrote Bump. "It’s important to note that Trump appeared to refer to that little spur when displaying the map Wednesday, saying that it showed Dorian 'going toward the Gulf.'"

"All of this backstory is important because it reveals just how obviously ridiculous Trump’s charade actually was," continued Bump. "It’s trivial to check historic hurricane maps against what Trump was showing. It’s obvious that the original image didn’t include the marker-sketched loop, and Trump made no comment suggesting that the addition was erroneous or a mistake. It’s hard to argue, then, that the loop was made for any other reason than allowing Trump to talk about where the storm was headed — toward the Gulf of Mexico and Alabama."

"It has been well documented by now that Trump hyperactively tries to create his own reality," wrote Bump. "Any other president — or, really, nearly any other person — might have simply admitted a mistake in the original tweet and deleted it. Trump can’t do that: Admitting one error means admitting that more might exist out there. Trump’s strategy, mirrored by his allies, is generally to insist that he’s never wrong and has never done the negative things of which he stands accused, whipping up a fog of doubt around everything he does, however minor."

"Someday, perhaps in one of the voluminous history books detailing the internal machinations of the Trump presidency, we will learn how the marker addition to the hurricane map came to be," concluded Bump. "We will learn who suggested it be there and why. We will learn what Trump said as it was being added, and we will learn how the White House decided on its reaction after the fact. For now, though, this seems like a fairly uncomplicated situation. Trump said something untrue. A map showed the truth. Suddenly, once in Trump’s hands, the map showed something somewhere in between."

"However clumsily," he added.