The Conversation (0)
Conrad Duncan
Sep 08, 2019
In between tweeting about secret Taliban meetings and James Comey, Donald Trump confused just about everyone last night by sharing a meme about his Hurricane Dorian forecast.
On Sunday, Trump falsely claimed that Alabama would “most likely be hit” by the storm and was quickly corrected by the National Weather Service.
However, since then his claim has become a political issue – with Trump refusing to back down, arguing that the media is trying to smear him and producing a map that appeared to be doctored to show Alabama in the storm’s path.
The president reignited the controversy last night when he tweeted an edited video that shows Trump shining a laser pointer while a cat (tagged as CNN) follows the pointer’s red dot as the Benny Hill theme tune plays in the background.
It’s hard to explain…
That is an actual tweet from the president of the United States.
It’s easy to normalise a lot of Trump’s behaviour, but at least this example stood out as being notably surreal.
It’s unclear how he found the video but it seems to have come from a Twitter user who repeatedly tweets pro-Trump memes at the president.
Trump has on at least one other occasion retweeted one of their videos.
As for what it means, it appears to be suggesting that the president is using the Alabama story as a distraction – taunting CNN with it like a cat with a laser point.
That would make sense because Trump has a lot of news to bury this week
This week, the president has faced:
- Reports that Congress is preparing to vote on formalising an impeachment investigation into him
- Accusations that he has used military spending to prop up his golf course
- Claims by his former press secretary that he is 'in severe mental decline'
In addition, there are ongoing fears that a recession is imminent, caused in part by Trump's trade war with China.
No-one wonder he’d rather talk about the weather forecast.