On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump had invited representatives of the Taliban to Camp David for peace talks over the objections of some top advisers. CNN reported that one of those advisers was Vice President Mike Pence. This—like many stories that portray the White House as a barely functional disaster area beset by backstabbing, incompetence, and hostility—provoked the president to complain on Twitter.

A lot of Fake News is being reported that I overruled the VP and various advisers on a potential Camp David meeting with the Taliban. This Story is False! I always think it is good to meet and talk, but in this case I decided not to. The Dishonest Media likes to create... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 9, 2019

Shortly thereafter, “Pence” denied the story too via the official vice presidential Twitter account … and apparently felt so strongly about expressing solidarity with Trump that he adopted the president’s characteristically outbursty syntax and use of Random Capitalizations:

That’s Absolutely Right Mr. President. More Fake News! The Dishonest Media never contacted our office before running with this story and if they had, we would have told them I FULLY support your decision. https://t.co/zjzro1fzSg — Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) September 9, 2019

This is especially interesting because the rest of Pence’s VP tweets are all written in the voice of a normal person using standard rules of punctuation. For example:

Our hearts are with all of those affected by Hurricane Dorian in North Carolina and down the coast. Thank you @FEMA for the briefing and update today in NC. We will continue to work with federal and local officials to provide aid to everyone in need. pic.twitter.com/VCx2ZHhWa3 — Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) September 9, 2019

Meanwhile, career officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are outraged that the agency’s (politically appointed) leaders released a statement on Friday disparaging the National Weather Service meteorologists in Alabama who’d issued (correct) information about Hurricane Dorian that contradicted Trump. The New York Times reports that NOAA released the statement after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross threatened to fire its leaders if they didn’t support Trump’s version of events.

In summary, we live in a banana republic in both low-stakes ways, like the president ordering the vice president to post a tweet, seemingly written by the president, about the president’s good judgment, and high-stakes ways, like forecasters not being allowed to issue accurate information about potentially deadly weather events if it would make the president look bad.

Hurricane Donald, indeed! (Please don’t call him Hurricane Donald.)