Once again, though, during Trump's Asia trip, he claimed to "believe" Putin when Putin denied any meddling.
Unfortunately, plenty of journalists and pundits are in the habit of reporting that Trump "believes" Putin. No. The correct way to report this is that Trump says that he believes Putin.
Does Trump actually "believe" anything? Does he recognize the concept of objective reality? I am not being snarky. These are serious questions because Trump is so serially dishonest about things that are blatantly obvious. I have often argued that Trump isn't even really a "liar," but instead, a "bullshitter," by the definition of Harry Frankfurt (see, for example, here). In his book, On Bullshit, Frankfurt distinguishes bullshitters from liars by their attitude towards truth. Liars recognize truth, and its importance, but want to deceive you by convincing you of a falsehood. Bullshitters have total disregard for the concept of truth. They see reality as completely irrelevant, and will just say whatever is convenient at the time. Sometimes, Trump is a liar, and sometimes he is a bullshitter.
With regard to Putin ordering the DNC hacks in 2016, Trump is a bullshitter.
For Trump, the point of running for president was not to be President because he clearly hates the job, and wants no part of the actual responsibilities. The point was to win a presidential election. The reason he keeps talking about 2016 is because it was really the only victory he has had in politics, having failed at everything as President.
However, if the contest had been anything other than a pure contest of Trump vs. Clinton, then it lessens his victory, so Trump must deny that anyone other than Trump or Clinton had any role to play in the election. That's it.
As I have written, many times, I don't actually think Russian meddling really did much of anything, but for Trump, that isn't the point. Even the barest hint that the election was something other than a pure contest of Trump vs. Clinton means he didn't achieve the greatest victory in the history of victories.
What is really going on in Trump's Trump-brain when he denies Putin's involvement in the 2016 election? What is going on is that he wants you to think that Putin wasn't involved. Does he think that Putin wasn't involved?
That's not the point. Trump is "bullshitting." Trump has total disregard for the question of whether or not Putin was involved. It doesn't matter to him. All that matters is what you think. All that matters is that you think that he achieved the greatest victory in the history of victories. That's why he can't stop talking about his historic electoral college landslide (which wasn't historic), why he can't stop going on about millions of non-existent fraudulent votes, why he told Sean Spicer to give his first press conference by lying* about the size of his inauguration crowds, and so forth.
If you are trying to figure out what is going on in Trump's Trump-brain regarding Putin's actual involvement in 2016, you are missing the point.
*For Spicer, it was a lie...
