Trump and the truth

President-elect Donald Trump found himself in an awkward Boy Who Cried Wolf moment yesterday. The man whose campaign became notorious for its collection of whoppers, a man who has repeatedly denied that Russia was indeed involved in election-related hacking, found himself in the middle of what may well be the biggest “news” hoax in recent history.

What we know is that Trump was briefed last week by U.S. intelligence officials about a “dossier” — reportedly prepared by a private company that contained unsubstantiated reports that Russia had compromising personal information on him. It also alleged various meetings between Trump advisers, including his lawyer Michael Cohen, and Russian operatives.

“It’s all fake news, it’s phony stuff, it didn’t happen,” Trump said during yesterday’s news conference.

He berated the media outlets that ran with some of the more salacious details, but saved his harshest criticism for the intelligence community.

If they leaked the report, he said, it would be “a tremendous blot on their record.”

Then the president-elect led reporters — and a national audience — down a uniquely Trumpian path, defending himself against the already surreal report. He insisted that during the month in question (last August) Cohen never left the United States and has never visited Prague — site of the alleged meeting. Then Trump went on to describe why there could be no compromising videotapes.

“When I leave the country, I’m surrounded by people,” he said. “I’m surrounded by bodyguards ... I tell people all the time ... be careful, there are cameras everywhere.”

Then he volunteered that besides all that he’s a “germophobe” — and if you want to know why that’s relevant, you’ll just have to go on the internet and read the “dossier” for yourself.

He finally acknowledged that yes, he believes the Russians were behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, but that Russia is hardly alone in its ability to hack into U.S. computer systems. And that he’s asked “some of the greatest minds” in the field to come up with a plan to “beat the hacking” — a plan due within 90 days of his inauguration.

But Trump also insisted that “Russia will have more respect for our country when I’m running it.”

That — assuming Trump actually believes it — is a naïve and dangerous notion.