Sharpie-gate? Trump shows apparently altered Dorian map

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(SOUND BITE) (ENGLISH) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"We thought we'd give you a update..."

U.S. President Donald Trump was swept into a Twitter storm on Wednesday, after a press briefing in the Oval Office, where he displayed a dated and altered forecast map of Hurricane Dorian's potential path.

(SOUND BITE) (ENGLISH) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"We had, actually, our original chart was that it was going to be hitting Florida directly. Maybe I could just see that, Kevin. It was going to be hitting directly and that would've affected a lot of other states."

The map included what appeared to be a drawn on black line around the southeast coast of Alabama, extending from the actual potential track area that was forecast.

(SOUND BITE) (ENGLISH) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"...you see it was going to hit not only Florida but Georgia. It could've... was going toward the Gulf. That was what we... what was originally projected."

The display comes after Trump was criticized for tweeting on Sunday that "In addition to other states, Alabama would most likely be hit by Dorian, which prompted a tweet from the National Weather Service 20 minutes later, saying "Alabama will NOT see any impacts" from Dorian.

On Wednesday, Trump was the target of criticism once again on social media.

The word "Sharpie" began trending on Twitter, while NBC weather forecaster Al Roker pointed to U.S. law that says falsely representing a weather forecast could result in a fine or imprisonment of up to 90 days or both.

Trump responded to the growing criticism online and in TV news broadcasts, tweeting a picture of a range of early projections, adding: "As you can see, almost all models predicted it to go through Florida also hitting Georgia and Alabama. I accept the Fake News apologies!"

Meanwhile, Hurricane Dorian is continuing north on path toward South Carolina, where residents were preparing for record storm surge and major flooding when the storm hits the coast on Thursday or Friday.