The Trump team is lying now about the lie

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MCENANY: Let me finish, Chris.

MCENANY: No, I do not think the president lied.

CUOMO: … have to answer this question first.

MCENANY: I do not think the president lied.

CUOMO: He never lied to the American people?

MCENANY: No, I do not think the president lied.

This exchange echoes a Washington Post interview with White House communications director Stephanie Grisham, in which she told of President Donald Trump's lies:

"I do not think it's lies … I think the president communicates in a way that does not necessarily please some people, especially the media." He often takes it if literally I know people I'll roll my eyes if I say that he was joking or talking hypothetically, but that's sometimes the case. "What I learned from him, that's what he's saying. is that he loves this country and that he is not going to lie to this country. "

So. Here we are. Or here we are again. After all, White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway made the same point early in the Trump presidency, when she told NBC's Chuck Todd this about the false claim that which the inauguration of Trump had attracted the biggest crowd of all time: "You say that it is a lie.And they give – Sean Spicer, our press officer – gave alternative facts."

Do not misunderstand what is happening here. It's lying about lying. Clear and simple.

Let me prove it – anecdotally and with larger data.

First, an example of the last days. At a G7 press conference on Monday, Trump was asked about his earlier claim that senior US and Chinese aides would exchange phone calls about a possible end to the trade war. Here's how he responded:

"You have had many calls in the past 24 hours, but certainly in the last 48 hours, we have had several calls, not one, not one, these are high level calls. They want to do a treat. "

Except that, it turns out that it was not true. Here is the CNN White House team answering the phone call:

"Although Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin insisted that there had been" communication ", collaborators privately conceded that the phone calls that Trump had described did not occur. unfolded as they had said.

"Instead, two officials said Trump was eager to project optimism that could spur markets, and confused Chinese vice premier's comments with direct communication from the Chinese."

The Chinese vice premier said in a statement that he hoped to find a way to conduct a "quiet" negotiation, and Trump turned that into "many … high-level calls". ". So, it's a lie.

Now take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Daniel Dale, of CNN, reported on Wednesday that Trump had made 48 false statements in the past six days – including nearly two dozen on the economy. Go back even further and the picture is even sharper. The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog found more than 12,000 Trump's false or misleading statements in its first 928 days, averaging 13 inaccurate claims per day.
The simple fact is that Trump – in his presidency and in his life before politics – has never emphasized the facts or the truth. Trump is much more interested in creating reality than he prefers – whether or not it fits the established facts. Recall that it's about a man who imitated a non-existent staff member in the Trump – John Barron organization! – Talk with gossip newspapers in New York about her own love life.

This willingness to say what serves his interests right now is echoing. In his business. And at the White House. If the boss has no qualms about lying, then why does anyone from below worry about it?

In fact, Trump's behavior discourages the truth. Because he lives in an imaginary world of his own creation, all those who do not want to play in this world are reprimanded, deemed insufficiently loyal to him and the administration in the broad sense. To lie down to support the lies of Trump is therefore a survival technique.

Which does not excuse him. There is NO way for McEnany, Grisham or Conway to really believe that Trump is ever lying. The evidence is simply overwhelming. But like Spicer and Sarah Sanders and so many other Trump substitutes who preceded them, they choose to join the president rather than adhering to the truth. Their reluctance to recognize that Trump is a serial Avarician – or, at a minimum, to avoid strongly defending the idea that he never lies, is a complicity in these lies.

Trump's attack on the truth – and the very idea that facts "F" assets exist – will persist in politics (and our culture) long after he and his servants are gone. And it's a very, very bad thing.

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