WASHINGTON – Oh, those pesky facts. They’re giving the new president such trouble.

But wait! The White House says it gets to decide what the “facts” are. Sometimes, in the strange parlance of that ubiquitous boss-assuager Kellyanne Conway, the White House likes “alternative facts.”

It’s astonishing – though not surprising – that President Donald Trump is so vain and thin-skinned that he flat-out lies despite irrefutable facts. Since taking the oath of office, he consistently has said things that were not true, are not true and never will be true.

He’s insisted 1.5 million people physically attended his inauguration. Photographs and Metro transportation data prove the better figure is 250,000. The Women’s March on Washington drew twice as many people protesting him as those who saluted him on Inauguration Day.

Then he ordered his puppet Sean Spicer to back him up, despite the facts. Said Spicer: “Sometimes we can disagree with the facts.”

Alas, the spot Trump picked to quibble about crowd size and to slam media coverage was in front of the sacred CIA lobby wall where stars represent unnamed agents who died for America.

Trump said the media falsely accused him of saying he was feuding with intelligence agencies; in fact, Trump steadfastly mocked the agencies, compared them to Nazis and ridiculed their finding that Russia interfered in the election.

Trump announced he’s been on the cover of Time more than anyone else in history. No, that would be Richard Nixon.

Trump spent 10 minutes of his first meeting with congressional leaders insisting 3 million to 5 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally on Nov. 8. If true, this would be a horrendous scandal, rocking democracy to its core.

But it’s not true. There is no evidence for that accusation. The association of the secretaries of state who carry out elections said it’s not true. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, says it’s not true. People who study elections for a living and look for fraud said it is not true.

If Trump wants to cast a pall over our democracy – and let’s not forget the facts show Hillary Clinton received 2.8 million more votes than he did – he should at least back it up with proof. He can’t.

Meanwhile, Trump has been making huge policy changes we need to discuss.

He made it more expensive for low-income people to get mortgages by raising rates for required mortgage insurance. He said no government money will fund any organizations that provide abortion assistance anywhere in the world. He ordered federal agencies to start dismantling the Affordable Care Act. He froze all regulations. He ordered a federal hiring freeze (don’t expect quick help with your Social Security claim).

He approved a Canadian company’s intent to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline in the Midwest and the Dakota pipeline Native Americans worry could sully their water sources. He ordered the building of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border that will cost billions, although Mexico said it won’t pay a peso and illegal entry is at a 40-year low.

He wants to ban Syrian refugees and asylum-seekers from “terror prone” (Muslim) countries. He says he is ready to begin deporting undocumented people. He wants to defund sanctuary cities that give refuge to people without documents.

Federal agencies are nervous, worried they’ll anger the White House. Those dealing with such issues as the environment and agricultural research are not communicating with the public or issuing press releases until further notice.

Tweets from an ex-employee at the Badlands National Park about global warming (Trump calls it a hoax) and acidic oceans were pulled down. Interior, which distributed pictures of the inaugural crowds that displeased the president, also is not to tweet.

Trump won. Who cares that his inaugural crowds were not history’s largest? Why his obsession with Clinton’s popular vote? Why did he call his TV show No. 1 in ratings when it was not?

Why does he say the 58-story Trump Tower has 68 stories? Why did he say his 25,000-square-foot apartment has 50,000 feet?

The bigger worry is the president’s declining credibility, at home and abroad.

What to believe? Trump, or your lying eyes?

Do not be surprised if your precocious children start lying to your face and blithely say it’s OK because the president does it. All the time.

Note to readers: Ann McFeatters is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Readers may send her email at amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.