Yup, he lies. That’s what he does.

Trump seems less accurate than a stopped clock. He lies constantly and is proven grotesquely wrong on a daily basis. And by some accident of history, thank you Vladimir, he is the president of the United States.

His lies have consequences.

“Hours after the United States became the nation with the largest number of reported coronavirus cases on Thursday, President Trump appeared on Fox News and expressed doubt about shortages of medical supplies, boasted about the country’s testing capacity, and criticized his predecessor’s response to an earlier outbreak of a different disease.”

“”I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” he said, alluding to a request by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. The president made the statement in spite of government reports predicting shortages in a severe pandemic — and he reversed course on Friday morning, calling for urgent steps to produce more ventilators.”

“Speaking on Fox on Thursday, Mr. Trump suggested wrongly that because of his early travel restrictions on China, “a lot of the people decided to go to Italy instead” — though Italy had issued a more wide-ranging ban on travel from China and done so earlier than the United States. And at a White House briefing on Friday, he wrongly said he was the “first one” to impose restrictions on China. North Korea, for one, imposed restrictions 10 days before the United States.”

Medicynical note: All presidents at one time or another get caught in speaking not quite the truth. In Obama’s case while drumming up support for the Affordable Care Act he assured people that they would be able to keep their insurer. He was wrong because there were a few insurers who refused to and/or were unable to meet the requirements for participation in the program. But the act resulted in several million more Americans having coverage. Obviously a net good.

In Trump’s case it’s hard to focus on one lie because in every public utterance he includes multiple falsehoods and juvenile attacks on others. Truth is the exception in his comments……..and yet he is tolerated and maintains his supporters. That, of course, is another facet of the current American pathology.

But now people are dying in part because of his slow response to a pandemic. He lies and hurls insults at each daily briefing seemingly unable to comprehend fully what is happening before our eyes. Obviously a net negative.