I get that Trump lies. You can’t open a major market newspaper without at least one article that purports to chronicle the vastness of his serial exaggerations but I also know a few things:

1 – Trump’s lies are mostly of three types:

a) The self-aggrandizement comment designed to boost his ego (the “I’ve done more than any other president) and bolster his base,

b) His incorrect opinions that the press dutifully “fact checks” and classifies as “lies”,

c) His correct opinions that the press attacks, then dismisses as lies but in the fullness of time prove to be accurate and true (i.e. Trump Tower was “wire tapped” – which we now know was actually true). There have been many times Trump was accused of lying when he was just way ahead of the curve.

2 – The same media that is now concerned with truth and accuracy was largely absent during the two Obama administrations, surfacing only to “explain” away Obama’s lies and to explain to American why we didn’t hear what we heard and why we can’t believe our lying eyes.

3 – Trump’s “lies” are political, Obama’s lies were policy. Obama’s lies did real harm to America and its citizens. Benghazi was due to an obscure YouTube video, “This deal prevents Iran from getting the bomb”, “You can keep your plan if you like your plan”, and the ACA will “save every family $2500 a year”.

4. The media as a different definitions and standards of “lying” for Republicans and Democrats. With the GOP, even true statements are lies if they aren’t 1) 100% accurate, 2) fit a context the media agrees with and 3) harm Democrat positions. If you don’t believe this, go look at the contortions “fact-checking” sites like PolitiFact go through to rank a GOP statement as “false” or “mostly false” and Democrat statements as “true” or “mostly true”. Remember that a “journalist” once affirmatively suggested that Obama wasn’t guilty of lying, he was merely “over-suggesting.”

Of course, Trump lies – everybody does – and if they say they don’t, that’s a lie but there are two kinds of lies – “white lies”, benign lies that lift up and/or prevent harm and “black lies”, those malignant lies that destroy and hurt. Every single one of us has told a friend, significant other/spouse or family member that something was what it wasn’t because we knew the truth would hurt – and we knew to allow that lie to exist harms no one. I also know there are a percentage of us who have also told or affirmed a lie with the intent to hurt (I’m not proud to admit it but it happens – often in a moment of passion or anger).

I would never excuse Trump’s sometimes tenuous relationship with facts and the truth – but I also know that relationship hasn’t made it into enacted policy (at least so far) the way the lies of Obama and his Democrat prevaricators did. If and when any of Trump’s misrepresentations make it into policy, then we have a problem.

When America looks in a mirror and asks Trump if those pants make its ass look big, Trump says no. When it asked Obama that same question, in true Harvey Weinsteinian fashion, he said not to worry, Obamacare would turn us into Kate Upton and get us a three picture deal.