As for Trump,
I'm thinking of the novel "1984." "Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia" - even though they were at war with Eastasia and in an alliance with Eurasia up to that moment. And everybody just believed that Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. Donald Trump's White House. The story constantly shifts. Trump sets a narrative. All his "surrogates" up to and including the Vice President go out and defend that narrative. Then Trump changes the narrative and totally contradicts everything his surrogates have been saying on his behalf, even though it was what he himself had been saying up to that point. The easy answer is that Trump is just a liar. And, yeah, sure politicians lie. But usually for political gain of some sort. They know they're lying, in other words. I'm wondering if Trump does. I'm wondering if Trump is just constantly changing the narrative in his head in response to events and then actually believes the new narrative, no matter how much it contradicts the old narrative. Which raises the question for me as to whether the President of the United States is even really in touch with reality? And while I do believe that many Republicans and conservatives understand that this is a problem, Trump has a fanatical core group of supporters who really believe that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia - and who, a week from now, will really believe that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia once he changes the narrative again. It's kind of frightening