Also, nothing said about him is to be believed, no matter who says it and how much proof is presented. Conversely, believing him, a compulsive liar, happens by default.

For instance, poll results published last month by Monmouth University found that 67 percent of self-identified Republicans and Republican-leaning voters believe Trump’s baseless claim that Joe Biden probably did pressure Ukrainian officials to keep them from investigating his son’s business interests there, while just 16 percent said Trump made promises or put pressure on Ukraine’s president to investigate Biden, even though Trump had already admitted it and the partial transcript confirms it.

This is both confounding and frightening. How is a democracy supposed to survive when this many people deny a basic common set of facts? How does one engage in political debate with someone lost in a world of lies?

And of course, this is just as Trump wants it. He has spent his entire life bending the truth and flat-out lying. It was one thing when he did it as a private citizen, to puff up his chest and inflate his wealth. There were no real consequences for the country in the telling of those lies.

But now he has brought his “lie loudly” tactic to the White House, and he has realized that there is a section of America hungry for a show, willing to believe anything the carnival barker says and be thoroughly entertained by it.

Trump realized something that few people are willing to acknowledge: That politics is theater first. It is about appearance and performance to a disturbing degree. People want a story, a vision, a fascinating protagonist. Politics loves a star.

The derisive cliché, “Washington is Hollywood for ugly people,” coined by Democratic strategist Paul Begala, has lasted so long because there is a grain of truth in it. It’s simply another version of Hollywood, where great tales are packaged and sold, where great actors teach people to believe in ephemera.