After Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, President Donald Trump thumbed this response:

I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017

And, big surprise, he’s lying. The FBI told Trump that Flynn was lying several weeks earlier, but Trump didn’t act. Trump was OK with Flynn lying for several weeks. Trump only fired his National Security Director after the Washington Post publishing that Trump was informed of the lies.

But Trump would have had no idea that Flynn had lied to the FBI about this, unless Flynn told him so.

Well, good golly! Did Trump just admit obstruction of justice?

Naa, Trump is just lying again. Lying is what he does every day of his life. He can’t describe lunch without lying about it. Trump can’t describe the weather without lying about it. It’s who he is.

 

So Trump’s tweet is clearly another lie. While it’s not complicated, it’s not illustrative, either. Yes, Trump lied about what he did, and he lied about lying, and he’s lying about those lies.  He lies about his collusion with Russia, he lies about the economy, he lies about taxes, and he lies about recordings of his own voice.

Trump lies about reality. Hard to beat that.

So there’s no real point in examining anything he does as if he planned it. Trump isn’t speaking from his heart, or admitted something critical, or any of that. He’s just lying, jumping to whatever seems mostly likely to make himself look… I’m not even sure. Trump is a compulsive liar, but more, he’s a fabulist. He can’t stand reality, so he slathers it with his fantasies about how virile, admired, and incredibly loved he really is.

“Honestly.” “I swear to god.” “Trust me.” They’re all well-known tells at this point.