There are few things more quintessentially Trumpian than using superlatives. It is an obsession. As a candidate, Trump said he would be "the greatest jobs producer that God ever created." He also simplified that to "the greatest president that God ever created." He has "the best words." He's "the king of debt," and understands it "probably better than anybody." His golf courses are "the best courses in the world." Last January, he told Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that he is "the world's greatest person."

This obsession has filtered down to his aides and children. Take Eric Trump on Fox News Wednesday:

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.

.@EricTrump on @foxandfriends: “Anybody who knows my father could tell you that he has more energy than any human being.” pic.twitter.com/T1YmQhfIvp — Fox News (@FoxNews) January 17, 2018

Really? He has more energy than any human being on earth? More than professional athletes? More than Chris Rock? More than the guy who does NFL Red Zone? Then again, we know how he feels about Low Energy People.

Trump the Younger was reacting to yesterday's medical report from President Trump's doctor, who said the very stable genius scored a perfect 3o-out-of-30 on his cognitive exam. This is quite an accomplishment for a 71-year-old man who seems to express himself almost exclusively in sentence fragments. It confirms Trump's past assessments of himself, and the exam-at-large was in line with the letter Trump's personal doctor, Harold Bornstein, wrote while he was a candidate. That included this line: "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." Today, Dr. Sanjay Gupta suggested the president has heart disease.

The superlative addiction can be funny. Trump has said he "was always the best athlete," and his lackeys have scrambled to back his claim. He has assured us "nobody is stronger" than him. "There's nobody bigger or better at the military." You can rest assured that "nobody knows the game better" than Trump does. And, of course, "nobody loves the Bible more."

This content is imported from YouTube. 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.

But often, the superlatives are deployed when Trump has said something deeply offensive or morally repugnant. They are a sad and embarrassing attempt to defuse criticism, a desperate shot-in-the-dark that really should convince no one apart from his base of zombie brownshirts. Just this week, he insisted on-camera that he is "the least racist person you will ever interview" after journalists asked him about reports he dismissed African nations as "shitholes" and insisted the U.S. prioritize (white) immigrants from Norway.

This is at least the third time Trump has claimed to be "the least racist person," which was echoed this week by The Mooch, a man clearly steeped in nostalgia for his 10-day White House stint. Trump has said he is "the least anti-Semitic person you've ever seen in your life." Meanwhile, his political ascendancy has coincided with the rebirth of overt white supremacy in America, which culminated with a march in Charlottesville where Neo-Nazis and like-minded groups could be heard chanting his name.

Getty Images

There's nobody, according to the man himself, "who's done as much for equality," or that "respects women more," or that's "better to people with disabilities." These claims are nakedly absurd. Trump mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability from the podium at a rally. He has made outrageous comments about the bodies of women, like Mika Brzezinski or Megyn Kelly, who have challenged him. And of course, he bragged about grabbing women "by the pussy." The appropriate reaction to many of the superlatives this president and his associates use to describe him is a mixture of laughter and contempt. Sometimes, fear is appropriate.

"There's nobody that understands the horror of nuclear better than me," Trump once said. Nuclear experts put the chances of thermonuclear war with North Korea as high as 50-50 these days, at least in part because the president's belligerence and personal attacks against Kim Jong-un—which he was specifically warned against. Trump may or not believe his own hype, but the sea of bullshit he's spouted over a lifetime might just drown us all.

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