Donald Trump is Not a Liar…of a Certain Kind

This may be the nicest post I ever write about Donald Trump. I keep seeing people describe him as a "pathological liar" and I don't think he is; not as I understand the term, at least. What I understand is more in keeping with this paragraph I found on Wikipedia…

Lying is the act of both knowingly and intentionally/willfully making a false statement. Most people do so out of fear. Normal lies are defensive, and are told to avoid the consequences of truth telling. They are often white lies that spare another's feelings, reflect a pro-social attitude, and make civilized human contact possible. Pathological lying is considered a mental illness, because it takes over rational judgment and progresses into the fantasy world and back. Pathological lying can be described as a habituation of lying. It is when an individual consistently lies for no personal gain. The lies are commonly transparent and often seem rather pointless.

Does anyone think Donald Trump's fibs are told for no personal gain? And it strikes me that Trump is not knowingly, intentionally or willfully making false statements so much as he just doesn't care if the statements are true or false just so long as they get applause from his base and allow him to avoid hard truths that may not be good for his candidacy.

The other day, he said there was no drought in California. I don't think he believed that or cared if it was true or not. I think he just knows his audience and he knows that a lot of them revolt against government and liberalism because government and liberalism often tell people they can't have certain kinds of spray cans or use certain kinds of light bulbs or that they have to put certain items in the blue trash can instead of the black trash can. A realtor who calls on me frequently in a futile effort to persuade me now is the time to sell my house told me of a neighbor I have who has been ticketed for overwatering his lawn. She says he told her, "I don't give a shit if there is a drought. If I want to water my lawn, no one's going to tell me I can't."

Betcha a hundred bucks that guy's voting for Trump.

What The Donald says is a lie but I don't see where it's a pathological lie. There's no reason to believe he said it due to mental illness and every reason to believe he said it because that kind of thing seems to be succeeding for him at the moment. He has paid no obvious price for past distortions of fact so he goes right on distorting. That's not being pathological. It's just sticking with what's worked so far.