For a long time I thought the issue with President Trump was that he has problems understanding economic concepts, or that he was unable to surround himself with advisors who have mainstream economic credentials.

As time marches on, evidence accumulated, however, that the problem is larger, now has become clear that he states facts he wishes to be true, rather than facts that are true — such as his insistence that the Fed raise interest rates under Obama’s recovery at times of high unemployment and low inflation. Now he’s demanding rate cuts at the apex of the economic boom cycle, even though the unemployment rate is much lower and inflation is higher.

The last chapter of the saga are the news stories that accumulate that make it apparent that he does not mind to commit fraud and lie to mislead the US public to its detriment, in order to cover up a trivial mistake he may have made in reading data.