Donald Trump compares Dorian to Hurricane Andrew: an ‘absolute monster’

President Donald Trump compared Dorian to Hurricane Andrew, calling it an “absolute monster," and urged those in the path of the hurricane projected to reach Category 4 status by the time it makes landfall in Florida early next week to stay safe.

“All indications are it’s going to hit very hard, and it’s going to be very big,” Trump said from the Rose Garden, outside the White House, in a video posted Thursday night on his Twitter account.

The National Hurricane Center said the Category 2 storm is expected to strengthen into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 with winds of 130 mph and slam into the U.S. on Monday somewhere between the Florida Keys and southern Georgia.

As of Friday morning, Dorian was centered about 260 miles east of the Bahamas, its winds blowing at 105 mph as it moved northwest at 12 mph.

The National Hurricane Center’s projected track had the storm blowing ashore midway along the Florida peninsula, southeast of Orlando and well north of Miami or Fort Lauderdale. But because of the difficulty of predicting its course this far ahead, the “cone of uncertainty” covered nearly the entire state.

The president said his staff is “working very hard” to provide assistance wherever it may be needed.

“We’re ready,” he said. “We have the best people in the world ready, and we’re going to help you. We’re shipping food, we’re shipping water. But it may be you’re going to evacuate. We’ll see what happens. We’re waiting.”

Trump said “we all got lucky” with Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands missing the brunt of the storm.

“It missed Puerto Rico,” he said. "It hit the Virgin Islands, but not as bad as it could have. But it really began to form big, and now it’s looking like it could be an absolute monster.”

Trump compared Dorian to Hurricane Andrew, which devastated South Florida in 1992.

“It does seem almost certain that it’s hitting dead center, and that’s not good,” he said. "The winds seem to be building at a tremendous rate. It looks like the winds are going to be unbelievably high. We’re all ready, and hopefully we’ll get lucky.

“But it looks to me like this time it’s heading in one direction. All indications are it’s going to hit very hard, and it’s going to be very big. Somebody said bigger or at least as big as Andrew, and if you remember Andrew from many years ago, that was not good. So, just be aware and be safe. But God bless you.”

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.