It has been clear for some time that prolonged support for Donald Trump, American president, has an impact on one's psyche. Sticking with him through all the tawdry, disgraceful displays has led to a kind of psychological sunk cost, where people are willing to go to basically any lengths to justify their investment. That includes, most directly, surrendering their reasoning faculties to The Leader, accepting his word as The Truth and rejecting any dissenting information from independent sources—like, say, The Mainstream Media—as biased Fake News.

We saw this manifest Tuesday in a poll in which 91 percent of strong Trump supporters suggested they trust him for accurate information, while just 11 percent trust the press. As if to drive home the point, the president held another unhinged rant-a-thon in Tampa last night, just Saying Things that came to mind—like suggesting you have to show ID to buy groceries—as the crowd cheered raucously. And after he got done saying Democrats would have "gotten rid of law enforcement" if they'd won the election, his supporters greeted the media in attendance:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018

Sweet Jesus.

These people were indeed just lied to—but not by the media. Wednesday morning brought an update from The Washington Post Trump Fact-Checking Team, who assessed that Trump has made 4,229 false claims in 558 days. That's 7.6 a day, and he has actually upped his rate of fabrication in recent weeks. He started out his tenure at 4.9 per day, but in the last two months alone, he's added a staggering 978. It's getting much, much worse, if you couldn't tell when the president said the Democrats want to get rid of all police officers.



But what good is telling any of that to people who hold up signs and wear shirts trumpeting QAnon? That's the fully insane conspiracy theory that grew out of Pizzagate based on the word of some anonymous Internet commenter and has taken hold in the far-out precincts of Trump servitude. Here's a brief survey of "Q," via the Post:

But viewing their message boards, it’s clear that QAnon crosses a new frontier. In the black hole of conspiracy in which “Q” has plunged its followers, Trump only feigned collusion to create a pretense for the hiring of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is actually working to expose the Democrats. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros are planning a coup — and traffic children in their spare time. J.P. Morgan, the American financier, sunk the Titanic.

This, of course, is another manifestation of the Trump Sunk Cost: some have turned to paranoid, delusional fantasy and utter nonsense to shore up their continually eroding position. Even supporters more tethered to reality would waive away evidence that their Chosen One is perhaps the most prodigious liar in modern history, saying that Obama Lied Too, or Hillary Would Be Worse, or The Amazon Washington Post Is Fake News.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

SIGNS:

Trump Tampa Tuesday .. pic.twitter.com/WmVOGn89uV — Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) August 1, 2018

You hesitate to give up on your fellow citizens, but what could you say to these people that would change their mind? They are truly down the rabbit hole now—just where The Leader likes them.



As CNN's Jim Acosta alluded to in his tweet posting the video, however, all this has potentially dangerous consequences. As my colleague Charles P. Pierce has often put it, there is a wildness in the country and in its politics now, and it may be too late to stop it. The wildness has only grown and metastasized, as things have become increasingly unmoored from reality.

If you truly believe there is a Deep State plot to unseat the president you love so dearly, and in whom you have invested so much of yourself, and that The Liberal Media is complicit in this effort, how long until you take drastic action? After all, Pizzagate led a gunman to open fire at a DC pizzeria last year. And as the president said last night while discussing The Wall, "We may have to do some pretty drastic things."

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io