I don't think trump understands truth and untruth as concepts. He just says whatever he thinks will get him closer to whatever short-term goal currently manifested in his reptile-brain.
I find it a fair question. Even before trump so often the great question is stupidity or lying. Its been the great question of the republican party for decades now and its hard because its clearly both. but probably more lying but not 100%, some is stupidity.
I recently celebrated my 70th birthday with my family on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If in this column, I declared that tens of thousands of people were at my birthday party and that rainbow-colored dolphins joined the festivities, my editor would no longer let me write this column.
Why is a 78-year-old presidential candidate held to a different and lower standard than a 70-year-old ink-stained newspaperman?
Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.
Sometimes one, sometimes the other, oftentimes both. He's fully capable of inventing a reality in his head on the spot and believing whatever he's spewing to be true.
The tl, dr is that back in the day he had a chance to endear himself to the Manhattan elites. Instead, he let his stupidity, greed, and arrogance make him anathema to the people he was so desperate to impress.
If sounds are coming out of his talk hole, he's lying. On top of that, he is also deluded, he actively lies, but I think he also believes a lot of his lies because its comforting.