And it is divorced from the rigors of truth and honesty. It exists as a near ecclesiastical devotion in a space where passionate faith surmounts accuracy and science.

In this space, everything must exist at the extremes, or not at all. Everything is love or hate, big or little, best or worst. And, everything is very, very, very.

Look at Trump’s early life, his political ascendancy and now his presidency, and it becomes abundantly clear that his branding and messaging playbook could actually fit on an index card: Exploit people’s covetousness, ambition, lust, greed, fear, racial tribalism and gullibility.

Everything Trump does employs one or more of these exploitations. When deployed in combination, these exploitations become his Seven Deadly Synergies.

And one of his most fundamental means is lying.

He is a pathological, irredeemable liar. Somehow, we have adjusted ourselves to this reality, not by accepting it as a new normalcy, but by diagnosing it as an enduring feature. Trump’s lying is so incessant and predictable that his own lawyers are reportedly warning him against talking with the special counsel Robert Mueller for fear that the lying could expose Trump to even more legal jeopardy.