Trump says he 'hasn't heard of category 5' hurricane before despite four hitting the US since he became president

The United States is bracing itself for the impact of Hurricane Dorian which is due to hit the southeastern coast of the United States within the next few days.

The storm has already devastated parts of the Bahamas in what is reported to be one of the strongest storms to ever hit the Atlantic, making landfall as a category 5 hurricane, with winds reaching up to 220 mph.

Given the impending severity of what could lay at stake for residents in Florida, which is set to be the first state hit, Donald Trump spoke to the press even before Dorian had made landfall in the Bahamas.

However, Trump's words to the press might not have reassured people as he went ahead and claimed that he has never heard of a category 5 hurricane before. The president said:

We don't even know what's coming at us. All we know is it's possibly the biggest. I have -- I'm not sure that I've ever even heard of a Category 5. I knew it existed. And I've seen some Category 4's -- you don't even see them that much.

But a Category 5 is something that -- I don't know that I've ever even heard the term other than I know it's there. That's the ultimate, and that's what we have, unfortunately.

As with most of the things that come out of Trump's mouth there is, of course, one huge problem here.

Since Trump took office in January 2017 there have been no less thanfour othercategory five hurricanes to hit the United States, including Dorian, meaning that either he has definitely heard of a storm of that magnitude before and he's lying or that the president of the United States really does not listen to any of his advisors.

The three previous category 5 hurricanes were Irma in September 2017 which hit the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, Maria also in September 2017 which ravaged Puerto Rico (something Trump has spoken about quite a lot) and Michael in October 2018, which blasted the Florida Panhandle.

Astonishingly, this isn't even the first time that Trump has said that he didn't know cateogary 5 hurricanes existed, oh no. CNN reports that in October 2017, prior to Irma and Maria he said that he "never even knew" they existed and that "nobody has ever heard of a (Category) 5 hitting land" despite Hurricane Katrina in 2005, being a category 5.

As you can imagine Trump's comments have been mercilessly mocked on social media.

There is even a compilation of him repeatedly saying that he has never heard of a storm of that size before.

Anyway, let's just hope that he has fully taken this information on board now. In the meantime, he has pledged to provide federal assistance to state and local officials in order to deal with Dorian.

HT CNN

More: These two Trump tweets about hurricanes in Puerto Rico and Florida couldn't be more different