Coined by John Scalzi on July 16, 2016 after reading journalist Josh Marshall's process for understanding the basis of many of Donald Trump's decisions, "Trump's razor" is a riff on "Occam's razor".
Josh Marshall: "According to Trumpâs Razor: 'ascertain the stupidest possible scenario that can be reconciled with the available facts' and that answer is likely correct." Or, "to phrase the principle in Occamâs terms, it tells us âthe stupidest scenario is always to be preferredâ."
When the National Weather Service contradicted President Trump's tweet that Alabama--among other states--would âmost likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated," Trump would days later hold up an official NOAA weather map that was absurdly altered with a Sharpie to include Alabama in the hurricane's prior predicted zone of landfall.
Did Donald Trump himself--irritated and embarassed that a government agency had corrected his misstatement--grab a Sharpie and alter the NOAA map, which weather experts noted would be an illegal act? Trump's razor says yes, that's the most likely scenario since it's the most plausible yet ridiculous one.
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