Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Does anyone seriously believe that President Donald Trump “strongly condemns” the meme video of him shooting, stabbing, strangling, and setting on fire a wide array of political and media figures, as well as news organizations, which was aired at a conference at his Doral resort in Miami last week? If so, I have a degree from Trump University to award them. On Monday morning, Stephanie Grisham, the president’s press secretary, claimed that Trump had “not yet seen the video,” but would watch it later, and “based upon everything he has heard, he strongly condemns this video.”

Well, what might he have “heard” about the video that she said he hadn’t seen? Here’s the New York Times, which broke the story on Sunday evening: The video depicts a scene inside the “Church of Fake News,” where parishioners rise as Mr. Trump — dressed in a black pinstripe suit and tie — walks down the aisle. Many parishioners’ faces have been replaced with the logos of news media organizations, including PBS, NPR, Politico, The Washington Post, and NBC. Mr. Trump stops in the middle of the church, pulls a gun out of his suit jacket pocket and begins a graphic rampage. As the parishioners try to flee, the president fires at them. He shoots Black Lives Matter in the head, and also shoots Vice News. … The clip ends with Mr. Trump putting a stake into the head of a person with a CNN logo for a face. Mr. Trump then stands on the altar, admiring his rampage, and smiles. But why should we believe that Trump condemns, or is repulsed by, any of this sickening and graphic violence? First, he outsourced the initial condemnation of the video to his press secretary, who weirdly tweeted on his behalf. But why didn’t he tweet himself? Are we expected to believe that Trump hasn’t had time to watch it? Or that he is too busy tweeting about national or international issues to tweet about this particular video? This is a president who spends his every spare moment glued to cable news; a president who tweets dozens of times, on dozens of random topics, every single day; a president who woke up on Monday morning and found time in his packed schedule to tweet in support of former press secretary Sean Spicer’s efforts on “Dancing With the Stars.”

Vote for good guy @seanspicer tonight on Dancing With The Stars. He has always been there for us! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2019