Frida Ghitis, an independent commentator and contributing editor for World Politics Review, discusses the impact of Trump's lies on policy and the world.

She says there are three possible explanations behind Trump's manufacturing of reality: gaslighting, he is chronically misinformed, or that he is mentally unstable.

There's a pernicious feedback loop that reinforces his incorrect information, turning it into the foundation of policymaking: he makes up his own reality, which is reflected back at him, cementing it as truth in his mind.

To whatever extent it is possible to become accustomed to the president of a major liberal democracy continuously lying, day after day, the world has grown more or less used to President Donald Trump's practice of incessantly spraying his unique stream of falsehoods across social media, political rallies and assorted public events. Editors at major media organizations have grappled with the complications of deciding whether or when to label the president's untruths as "lies," noting that a lie requires a conscious intention to deceive and knowledge that a statement is incorrect—and it is not always clear that is the case when Trump fires off one of his regular whoppers.



What is beyond dispute is that Trump has turned fact-checking into a growth industry, recently accelerating the speed of its assembly line to a rate that makes it nearly impossible to keep up. At a rally in Minnesota late last month, fact-checkers clocked him making a false statement every two minutes. Multiple databases have recorded thousands of lies or untruths since he took office.



Whatever the reason for the unprecedented pace of falsehoods, there is no question that the practice has major implications. Beyond the ethical and political ones, Trump's made-up world has a serious, and potentially devastating, impact on policy.



In recent weeks, Trump has falsely claimed that "crime in Germany is way up" since Germany accepted large numbers of refugees; that the North Korean nuclear problem is solved; that the major steel manufacturer U.S. Steel "is now expanding and opening six new plants"; that economic growth under President Barack Obama never broke 2 percent; that the U.S. is being invaded by Central American gang members and that he has "watched ICE liberate towns from the grasp of MS-13"; and on and on and on. All of these claims, along with thousands of others, are simply untrue.



Trump deliberately lies to boost his accomplishments, smear his critics and make it impossible to know what the truth is. He is also woefully uninformed. He does not read much at all, and he does not trust people who disagree with him, magnifying the echo chamber effect that has touched other presidents but none as much as Trump, who appears to have an exceedingly low tolerance for criticism.



There are three possible explanations behind Trump's manufacturing of reality. The first is that it amounts to "gaslighting," a conscious effort to disorient, to create doubts about what is real and what isn't, ultimately undercutting his critics and injecting doubt into any fact that is unhelpful to his goals. The second possibility is that Trump is simply misinformed, that he is not lying but repeating false information that he picks up on his unvaried diet of right-wing media, mainly Fox News, which he watches religiously. Finally, there is the controversial explanation that Trump is mentally unstable, perhaps suffering from some type of cognitive decline.



That argument was rejected earlier this year by the then-White House physician, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, who gave Trump an over-the-top bill of health, claiming Trump is so well, mentally and physically, that with a healthier diet he could live to be 200 years old. The assessment, of course, was soundly rejected by medical experts. Yet Jackson was later rewarded by Trump with a nomination to head one of the government's largest agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs. The nomination collapsed amid revelations that Jackson was not only unqualified, but had questionable judgment, a tendency to break the rules to advance his career, and a track record of still-active substance abuse.



Jackson's apparent twisting of the facts in order to satisfy the president is emblematic of the policy risks of Trump's record on reality. The White House doctor wanted to keep the president happy. There are strong incentives for doing so, and great risks for failing to help the president build and promote his fictional world.



The result is a pernicious feedback loop that reinforces incorrect information, turning it into the foundation of policymaking. If the premises behind policy strategies are flawed, the policies are likely to backfire. When Trump claimed that "trade wars are good, and easy to win," his commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, dutifully downplayed the dangers.

The president makes up his own reality, which is reflected back at him, cementing it as truth in his mind. The phenomenon extends to loyal media outlets. In an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo last Sunday, almost every time Trump said something false or questionable, Bartiromo assented with an "I know" or "I agree," further reinforcing Trump's fictions.



For members of the Trump administration, dealing with the president's misstatements is risky. They can try to quietly reroute Trump's misguided missiles, find a way to play along, or resign—as many administration officials have done.



Trump surely expected the giant tax cuts passed late last year to boost his poll numbers. But when he claimed they would not affect the deficit, few took him seriously. Then his chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, falsely declared "the deficit is coming down rapidly," which is the direct opposite of what is actually happening.



This week, after his national security adviser, John Bolton, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Bolton admitted he wasn't sure if Trump would recognize Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea when they meet in Finland later this month. "We'll see," Bolton noted with uncharacteristic understatement. The White House later changed course, saying that would not happen.



When Trump returned from his meeting in Singapore last month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he triumphantly declared that "there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea" and told Americans to "sleep well tonight!" That was awkwardly reminiscent of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's words after meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938: "I believe it is peace for our time," he said back in London. "Now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds."



In the weeks since the Singapore summit, Trump's own intelligence officials have found that North Korea is continuing to "deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles." The prospects for a Nobel Peace Prize, which had enticed Trump, seem more remote. Still, the president continues to broadcast falsehoods about the regime in Pyongyang even after a formal U.S. government declaration that North Korea remains a serious national security threat. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is trying to push negotiations with the North forward, ignoring his boss's lies.



Trump creates a fantasy world in order to boost his own standing. But when his aides and loyal media do not question it, his alternative facts become real in his mind, forming the foundation for some of his disastrous policy decisions. Policies built on lies can only succeed when the verdict of their effectiveness is itself a lie.

