The U.S. state of Hawaii experienced 38 minutes of panic and chaos on Saturday, after cell phone and TV screens briefly displayed a false emergency alert about a ballistic missile headed for its shores.
But while state and federal officials scrambled to offer apologies and reassurances to the public, President Donald Trump had other things on his mind.
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Trump, whose 2018 thus far has been dominated by damning allegations contained in the book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” took to Twitter to rail against the book’s author Michael Wolff for the umpteenth time, labeling him “mentally deranged.” He also slammed the media for promoting Wolff’s “Fake Book.”
Earlier, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump had been briefed on the incident, which she deemed an “emergency management exercise,” despite Hawaii Governor David Ige and other officials revealing the missile alert was sent out in error.
“This was purely a state exercise,” Walters said in a statement, even as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai tweeted that the agency was launching an investigation into the false alert.
WATCH: How did a ballistic missile alert warning accidentally get sent out in Hawaii?
Trump’s silence on the matter left many Twitter users incredulous.
Trump still hadn’t made any comments on Hawaii as of Saturday night.
WATCH: Hawaii residents, tourists react following accidental incoming missile alert warning