Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, supporting Donald Trump as he lies about all he's done for black people.

Proving once again that truth is stranger than fiction, the presidency of Donald Trump is downright bizarre and mystifying. Yesterday, Trump met with nearly 20 inner city religious leaders and lawmakers at the White House to discuss criminal justice reform. Under a normal presidency, this would have been a serious policy discussion addressing the impact of mass incarceration and the many issues faced by black people living in America’s cities. But, once again, this is far from a normal presidency. And so the meeting devolved into an incomprehensible mess—with Trump talking about all that he’s done for the economy that will make life easier for former felons as well as lying to the group by saying that he has "done far more for inner cities than anyone else."

It takes a serious amount of shamelessness to lie so blatantly in front of a group pastors. And most people wouldn’t do it. But Trump being Trump, he isn’t worried about his soul. He isn’t worried about anything. He’s a lying liar and his many sycophants let him get away with it so there isn’t much incentive for him to stop doing it. In fact, he’s encouraged to do it. That’s what makes this meeting, in particular, so very strange. Trump sat in a room full of black pastors who should know that not only is lying a sin but that Trump himself is really bad for black people in every way. And in the spirit of black liberation theology, they should have pressed him on justice for the poor and marginalized because that is what the heart of the Christian gospel is truly about.

Guess how many of them did that? Not a single one.

A room full of black pastors who supposedly work for the welfare and well-being of black people in America’s inner cities nodded and smiled and gave their approval to a president who routinely refers to their own congregants and communities as “the blacks” who live in hellholes. He has proved his lack of concern for black people by cutting funding for environmental justice, repeatedly siding with big business, fighting tooth and nail to prevent access to heath care, and separating families at the border and having a complete disdain for immigrants, many of whom are, in fact, black.

But this is what happens when Trump and his cronies invite people to the White House who agree with them. This was not a meeting of religious leaders with different perspectives who can at least come together around core issues that impact black lives. Instead, it was a meeting of pro-Trump black people, designed to stroke Trump’s ego and make Trump look like he’s not a racist. Of course, no one is buying it. He’s still incompetent and still a white supremacist—no matter how many silly and non-critically thinking black and brown people he surrounds himself with.