Truth, justice – not the American way

White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway had seemed to set the tone, if not the standard, in the initial days of the Trump administration when explaining why a falsehood is not a falsehood. She insisted the official claim that President Trump’s inauguration drew the largest crowd in history – it clearly did not – merely represented ‘‘alternative facts’’. Almost instantly, that much-mocked phrase came to define the Trump White House’s liberties with reality. Leave it to Rudy Giuliani, who has become the out-of-court jester in defending Trump against the Mueller investigation, to outdo Conway in the political theatre of the absurd. Challenged on why Trump should be concerned about perjury if he simply told the truth, Giuliani demurred that it’s not so simple. ‘‘Truth isn’t truth.’’

It’s becoming abundantly clear that, absent a subpoena and prolonged court fight, Trump is not going to sit down for an interview with the Mueller team. It’s equally apparent that the president’s obsession with the probe is only escalating. On Sunday he tweeted that it was ‘‘McCarthyism at its WORST!’’

He also took issue with White House counsel Donald McGahn speaking with investigators. Trump said McGahn ‘‘must be a John Dean type ‘RAT.’’’ Process that one: A public servant who spoke truth under oath is called a ‘‘rat’’ by the US president. In a word: sad.