The president’s legal adviser doesn’t want Trump to testify in case he is ‘trapped into perjury’ – a new take on falsehood from the same team who brought you ‘alternative facts’

Name: Truth.

Age: 13.8bn years, approximately.

Appearance: Oh, well … I mean, I know it when I see it.

Do you? I don’t know. Especially because truth isn’t truth, apparently.

Sorry, what? “Truth isn’t truth.” President Trump’s legal adviser Rudy Giuliani (above) just explained that to the world.

Would that stand up in court? We may yet find out. Giuliani was appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday when he was asked about the delay in Trump talking to the Mueller inquiry. “Look,” he said. “I’m not going to rush into having him testify so he gets trapped into perjury.”

'Truth isn't truth': Giuliani trumps 'alternative facts' with new Orwellian outburst Read more

Trapped into perjury? But if he just answers Mueller’s questions honestly … Ah, no, that’s just Giuliani’s point. “It’s somebody’s version of the truth, not the truth,” he said.

Surely, erm … truth is truth? “No it isn’t truth,” said Giuliani. “Truth isn’t truth.”

Isn’t that perfect nonsense? Yes. Unless nonsense isn’t nonsense.

Does Giuliani have any kind of point? Well, maybe he believes that the Mueller investigation is politically motivated against Trump, and plans to ignore the evidence of what is true.

I see … but is that true? Which theory of truth are we using? I very much doubt that it can be deduced axiomatically.

Let’s use the correspondence theory, whereby a statement is true if it corresponds to verifiable facts in an objective reality. All right. In that case, Giuliani’s talking bullcrap. Mueller is a Republican. He was appointed by another Republican, in Trump’s own justice department. He is supported by the American people and most of Congress. There is no evidence that he has a political motive.

Fine. Trump and his people, on the other hand, have a long and proved record of difficulties with the gap between truth and fiction. Sean Spicer kicked things off by saying that a small crowd was larger than a large one. Then Kellyanne Conway explained that this wasn’t untrue, it was just an “alternative fact”.

I remember. Trump lies so fast it’s hard to keep up, but to pick one recent and clear example, he said he was in the UK the day before the Brexit referendum, when in truth he didn’t arrive until the day after – a fact documented in flight manifests and in his own tweets.

What are we going to do about these people? Well, if you’re an American voter, you might do something at the midterms in November. The rest of us can only watch in disbelief.

Do say: “If only there were some kind of ‘scientific method’ for establishing what’s true.”

Don’t say: “The video was faked! Giuliani never said: ‘Truth isn’t truth.’”