Fact checkers say that, if anything, the rate has increased. Since then, such lies have only multiplied. He was asserting that truth and falsehood were subject to his will. 'They may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now.' The president was not saying that the Bureau of Labor Statistics had improved its methodology.

In the Obama years, Trump had been fond of describing monthly jobs reports as 'phony' and 'totally fiction.' But now? 'I talked to the president prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly,' Spicer said. In case anyone missed the point, Sean Spicer, Trump's press secretary, made it clear a few weeks later when he announced favorable employment statistics. The president sought to put the press and public on notice that he intended to bully his staff, bully the media, and bully the truth. The intention was not to deceive anyone on the particular question of crowd size. It was no coincidence that one of his first actions after taking the oath of office was to force his press secretary to tell a preposterous lie about the size of the inaugural crowd. They may spin the truth, bend it, or break it, but they pay homage to it and regard it as a boundary. The fact is that President Trump lies not only prolifically and shamelessly, but in a different way than previous presidents and national politicians.

Trump's command of the basic concept of disinformation offers some insight into how he approaches the truth as president.

'Well,' replied Trump, 'it's a terrible statement unless he gets away with it.' With that extraordinary declaration, Trump showed himself to be an attentive student of disinformation and its operative principle: Reality is what you can get away with. 'I think that could be the greatest spin I've ever seen.' Matthews then asked about Vice President Dick Cheney's insinuations that Kerry's election would lead to a devastating attack on the United States. 't's almost coming out that Bush is a war hero and Kerry isn't,' Trump said, admiringly. In a 2004 television interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC, he marveled at the Republicans' successful attacks on the wartime heroism of Senator John Kerry, the Democrats' presidential candidate. Long before Donald Trump began his political career, he explained his attitude toward truth with characteristic brazenness.

Trump never read the constitution