I wonder if he is even capable of acknowledging reality. Even his excuse when confronted by the fact that his electoral win was no record was a lie. "People told me...."
No they didn't. Why would they? But he lies with total fluidity. People told me must be one of his standard back-up lies when he is confronted by the truth. Picture 10 year-old Donald discovering how well this worked for him. Mummy fell for everything.
Has anyone written an article describing the Trump lie ecosystem? They ought to.
The "believe me" and "trust me" statements clearly signal when he is not telling the truth in the first place. In his private business, welching on deals came one step after a job was complete, followed by telling the contractor he would SEE THEM IN COURT. The bullying and labelling of folks who directly contradict him is part of his escape strategy (fake news, so-called judges). As are the delays into a future which never happens. And "people told me" is a means of detaching himself from responsibility for his lies when he is caught.
He runs an astonishing layered architecture of dishonesty. But I think with repeated scrutiny we will see how each layer works.
Everything protects the fact that he doesn't want his personality to be bound by his whimsical, manipulative decision-making upfront. Even a contract cannot bind his desire to make a grandiose statement, and he is totally dependent on the applause he gets for it.
Ratings (ie approval) is indeed everything for this guy. So the Apprentice, Twitter, the presidency, the size of the election crowd etc. This is Donald trying to impress his dad. But daddy is never impressed. Daddy is cold as ice.
It's all part of the same whole. He must have felt hopelessly unpraised as a kid to be so needy as an adult.
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