The Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on Thursday slammed President Donald Trump for sharing an altered weather map to support his false claim that Hurricane Dorian once threatened Alabama.

"The president said that Alabama was at risk from Hurricane Dorian," Smith said. "It wasn't. Maybe he made a mistake. Maybe he was confused. We don't know. But he was wrong."

He went on to describe Trump's false claims about the path of Hurricane Dorian as "fake news defined."

Smith's criticism of Trump is the latest attack in a developing confrontation between the president and the network long thought to be his favorite news source.

Trump has repeatedly criticized Fox News in recent months, saying in August: "There's something going on at Fox, I'll tell you right now. And I'm not happy with it."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on Thursday slammed US President Donald Trump for sharing a doctored weather map to support his false claim that Hurricane Dorian was originally set to hit the state of Alabama.

The episode is the latest in a long series of confrontations between Trump and the network.

Speaking on the show "Shepard Smith Reporting" on Thursday night, Smith launched into a lengthy monologue criticizing Trump, asking: "Why would the president of the United States do this?"

"Some things in Trumplandia are inexplicable," Smith said. "The president said that Alabama was at risk from Hurricane Dorian. It wasn't. Maybe he made a mistake. Maybe he was confused. We don't know. But he was wrong."

Trump first claimed Sunday that Dorian was forecast to hit Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama.

At the time, the first four states were in the hurricane's predicted path, but Alabama was not. Trump's message led to a swift rebuke from the National Weather Service's office in Birmingham, Alabama.

Trump doubled down on his claims throughout the week, however, and on Wednesday he produced a National Hurricane Center map that was altered — apparently with a black Sharpie — to extend its predicted track to Alabama.

On Thursday, Smith called this "fake news defined."

"That map was from the day the hurricane became a hurricane," he told viewers. "Eight days ago. August 28. It was four days old at the precise time he said Alabama would likely be hit harder than anticipated. By then, it was fake news defined on a very serious subject."

Read more: Trump seems to have altered an old map of Hurricane Dorian's path to make it look like the storm was headed toward Alabama

Trump participating in a debate sponsored by Fox News at the Fox Theatre on March 3, 2016, in Detroit. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Smith's attack on Trump was the latest salvo in a growing war of words that has seen the president increasingly turn on the network long believed to be his favorite news source.

"Fox is a lot different than it used to be," Trump told reporters in August after one of the network's polls found he had less national support than four Democratic contenders for the presidency in 2020.

"Fox has changed, and my worst polls have always been from Fox," he said. "There's something going on at Fox, I'll tell you right now. And I'm not happy with it."

Read more: Trump is reportedly worried that Fox News is being taken over by liberals trying to undermine him, as his war on the network escalates

Some Fox anchors have hit back at the president's criticisms, with the host Neil Cavuto saying in late August that Fox News staff members "don't work for you."

"Well, first of all, Mr. President, we don't work for you," Cavuto said on the air. "I don't work for you. My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you, just report on you."

Hurricane Dorian's trajectory appeared to have been altered with black marker. White House/Twitter

Though he did not respond directly to Smith's criticism, Trump continued to push his false claims about the trajectory of Hurricane Dorian, tweeting about it twice on Thursday.

In one tweet, he shared a message from the Alabama National Guard on August 30 saying that Dorian was "projected to reach southern Alabama by the early part of the week."

In another tweet, Trump shared several hurricane-trajectory projections from Thursday and Friday last week, saying: "Just as I said, Alabama was originally projected to be hit. The Fake News denies it!"