(How I miss that great woman!!)

But anyway, yeah, "WHAT??!!"

He knows his base will believe him over any conflicting news source so he stokes their anger to distract them from the truth or other news. Of course the fact that he is very likely guilty of treason or collusion with the Russians and the Senate health care bill will devastate his base and the rest of America are certainly news items he does not want his base to hear about from other people.

Yeah.

You're dealing with someone who has the emotional intelligence of a three-year-old.

All children go through a narcissistic phase. People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) never grow out of that phase. They never develop empathy, or the understanding that everyone else out there is another human being exactly like them. They think they're the center of the universe and see everyone else out there as something like an extension of their own body. Not understanding that other people are autonomous beings, they try to manipulate them through cajoling and lies. They can't see that their lies are obvious to others.

If you read what I've written above carefully, you will see that it explains all of Donald Trump's behavior. I have not exaggerated anything. He literally has the emotional sophistication of a three-year-old. I don't have children, but I imagine that the sort of behavior we see in Trump is exactly the sort of behavior you might see in a three-year-old. Trump is like a kid who has chocolate all over his face and yet denies that he ate the chocolate cake. If you want to understand this fascinating yet very disturbing disease further, I recommend "The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists" by Eleanor Payson.

He uses it as a distraction.

keep from the healthcare bill fiasco. This jerk will never stop his stupidity. He needs to gooo!!!!!

I think we're down past "not my fault" territory.

I'm not trying to be glib or snarky, but seriously, if you can 1) find the adult child of a narcissist and borrow their coping strategies, and 2) look at everything he does through the lens of narcissism, he gets a lot easier to deal with. Not less infuriating or less malicious, but it all gets clearer and the counter strategies become more obvious.

I had to deal with a narcissist at work. Same sort of behavior. He could tell 4 lies in a single sentence. The next day, he could tell four opposite lies, witjout.ever acknowledging he had changed his story. Instead he will accuse of being a liar.

Lather, rinse and repeat. Everyday. Until he got fired and then did the same thing somewhere else. Odd thing is well this can work. He got paid a large settlement to go away.

There are internet articles and books om dealing with narcissists in the workplace. You'll see Trump fits.the description exactly.