I honestly think that one was ignorance more than direct malice. I think he is in fact as ignorant / incurious as he seems.

Both are bad. Trump was wrong because he was speaking on outdated information but he wouldn't accept that he was wrong so his administration created some data so he could say he was right.

> he was speaking on outdated information

I don't think there was ever any information, outdated or otherwise, that suggested that the hurricane was going to hit Alabama. The theory I've heard that the makes the most sense is that Trump saw a report about the damage it was going to inflict on the Bahamas, mixed up Alabama and Bahamas, tweeted condolences to Alabama, and the administration tried to defend his mix-up by concocting fake information to explain it.

(In many respects, if he had just quietly dropped the matter, it would have been largely ignored since it was cleared up pretty quickly; it was the childish response to try to justify why it wasn't a mistake that made it such an issue.)

Certainly bad. Arguably stupid is even more dangerous.

Another data point that stuck with me: viewing an eclipse by making a pinhole in paper and looking directly through it at the sun.

It's not "making excuses" I genuinely think what I said.

This kinda recrimination and such aren't helping anything.

What was your purpose in saying you think it's ignorance more than malice? What did you actually want to communicate with that statement?

I would venture a guess that they wanted to communicate their opinion that it's ignorance more than malice.

Please do not escalate into a flame war.

I intended to convey that I think it was more likely ignorance than malice.