Anyone who considered even for a moment whether President Trump's Would/Wouldn't routine was genuine should donate their brain to science, because they aren't using it. First and foremost, Trump couldn't even get through his initial walk-back of his disastrous comments at the Helsinki press conference without equivocating and fudging the lines. Most of the coverage focused on the "wouldn't," but here was Trump's full explanation:

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Trump couldn't read his script about Russia interfering in without adding that it could have been someone else. pic.twitter.com/7PaDAZHd16 — PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) July 17, 2018

"I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. There's a lot of people out there."

He cannot just admit the truth without obfuscation. He was essentially walking back the walk-back as he walked it back. Also, he crossed out a line in the prepared statement from which he read that called for the perpetrators of the meddling to be brought to justice. He added, in all-caps sharpie, a self-reminder to say "NO COLLUSION." Except he spelled it with one "L."

All that is in addition to the fact that Wouldgate is just one part of an extended performance in Helsinki wherein Trump consistently sided with Putin against American officials and interests. It was not just one sentence or one grammatical error or one double-negative. It was the entire trip to Europe.

But just to drive home how foolish it is to ever give this president the benefit of the doubt, he jumped on the Tweet Machine shortly after to fully walk back the walk-back:

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The meeting between President Putin and myself was a great success, except in the Fake News Media! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018

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So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki. Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018

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While the NATO meeting in Brussels was an acknowledged triumph, with billions of dollars more being put up by member countries at a faster pace, the meeting with Russia may prove to be, in the long run, an even greater success. Many positive things will come out of that meeting.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018

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Some people HATE the fact that I got along well with President Putin of Russia. They would rather go to war than see this. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018

Ah, everyone loved the meeting. No problems to report, no mistakes were made. No would-wouldn't disputes even need to be adjudicated. That's why he had to tweet constantly in defense of the summit over the course of a few hours. It's hardly necessary at this point to suggest he doth protest too much.

Semantically, the Walk-Back Walk-Back is reminiscent of the time Trump's lawyer got a lawyer, which prompted the question of how long it would be until Trump's lawyer's lawyer would need a lawyer. But in substance, it greatly resembles Trump's reaction to the fallout to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, when he suggested there were "very fine people" marching alongside Nazis—many of whom were chanting his name. It was so uncanny that The Washington Post's Philip Rucker was able to predict this morning's events:

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If this is Charlottesville redux, then expect Trump to get mad tonight that this afternoon’s do-over, wrong-word excuse didn’t garner glowing headlines, and then come out tomorrow doubling down on what he really wants to say, which is what he said alongside Putin. — Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) July 17, 2018

Apparently, being an Artful Dealmaker means being predictable.

But beneath all that, there is no longer even an expectation that the president believes what he says. It is simply accepted that he will say whatever he thinks plays best—in the media or to a rally crowd—in that moment. What he says has no bearing on what he actually thinks or what he will say an hour or a day for now. That's an easy way to operate when you believe reality is whatever you're saying right now, and anything's true if enough people believe it.

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.

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