For Many Americans, Trump Is the Only Standard For Truth
by tristero
I believe Cilizza is mistaken re: Sharpiegate:
Trump is so obsessed with being right (or at least being perceived as being right by his supporters) that he blocks out any and all other responsibilities or duties as President to pursue that goal.
Oh, he made a simple slip of the tongue, and he knows it and his advisers know it. He's not obsessing about this because he needs to be right. He (and his cronies) are not letting this go because it enables them to test how powerful his ability is to manufacture truth is to his base. They're asking: how many people actually believe Alabama was at risk simply because Trump said it was and don't believe the debunking?
I'm sure they're trying to find out. That is the reason the Sharpie-altered map was created. Learning how many people continue to believe Trump no matter documentary evidence to the contrary will provide the GOP a good idea of how much they can capitalize on Trump's lies in the upcoming campaign. A lot of people actually believe that whatever he says has to be true simply because he said it. If that number is high enough, it doesn't matter whether Trump actually loses the election. He will simply declare himself the winner and they will never, ever accept the Democrat as the legitimate president.
As I see it, this is not a joke, this is not mental illness, and this is not "having to be right." This is deliberately capitalizing on a simple mistake in order to quantify Trump's capacity to set the truth terms of the public discourse even in the most absurd circumstances. It is very, very ominous.