After a quiet couple of months, Wilbur Ross, the secretary of commerce, appears set on distinguishing himself again as the most compromised member of an administration that at times seems defined by ethical and moral flexibility.

On Monday, The Times reported that Mr. Ross threatened last week to fire officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, not for doing their job poorly but for doing it well. The secretary was displeased that forecasters at the National Weather Service, which is overseen by NOAA, had contradicted President Trump’s incorrect warning that Hurricane Dorian was on track to hit Alabama. The threat was an abuse of authority aimed at misleading the public to provide cover for the president.

For those not following the Hurricane Dorian controversy: On Sept. 1, Mr. Trump tweeted a warning to residents of several states, including Alabama, that they would “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated” by the storm. A few minutes later, responding to inquiries from concerned Alabamians, the Birmingham office of the National Weather Service issued a tweet clarifying that the state would “NOT see any impacts from Dorian.”

Government scientists attempting to stem the spread of bad information about a natural disaster should be seen as fulfilling their duty. A White House official suggested the correction was an attempt to show up the president. Mr. Trump then spent the next several days scrambling to prove he had been right, an increasingly embarrassing spectacle best captured by a media briefing on Sept. 4, at which he displayed a map that appeared to have been doctored with a Sharpie to show a sliver of Alabama in the storm’s path. As the mockery grew louder, the White House decided to get serious.