…actually believe other bald-faced liars?
As if you need an example:
Almost certainly not. Liars tend to assume everyone else is lying; psychopaths assume other people are also without real empathy. I am totally sure Trump thinks people generally lie as much as he does.
Well a con man preys mainly on honest people since they usually believe him, at least for a while.
I abhor the idea of being thought a bald faced liar, so I grew a beard.
Since the OP couldn’t be arsed to actually tell us what the article says, here is the opening paragraph:
There are different types of liars and people lie, occasionally or constantly, for different reasons. I believe thump is a narcissistic liar (this article is geared toward being in a relationship with a narcissist, God help you):
So it’s not a question of whether he believes his lies or not. He doesn’t think that way. He doesn’t define truth the way normal people do. Truth is whatever he can get someone to believe, even momentarily. Truth is fluid. Facts are fluid according to his purposes. IOW the OP’s question does not apply in this case. Sadly and to the country’s detriment.
Missed edit window.
Another example of a liar, but different from thump: I believe that O.J. Simpson REALLY believes that he didn’t kill his wife. To me that’s an example of telling yourself and everyone else a specific lie so often that you become convinced it is fact. I don’t put thump in that class. He is in a narcissistic class by himself.
He doesn’t “believe” things the same way a normal person does. A normal weasel politician will lie in order to get you to believe something. Trump just says stuff, whether it is true or false or whether the audience thinks it is true or false is irrelevant, what matters is how saying it makes him feel at that moment.
I think it goes beyond that. I think Trump is so self-centered that he has a hard time grasping the concept of reality. His universe is simply Donald Trump.
So truth isn’t defined as what is real in the universe; truth is defined as what is real to Donald Trump. So he thinks something is true because he believes it is true.
As to the OP: Sure he believes other bald faced liars if they agree with him. If they don’t agree then he defines them as liars. Actually, it doesn’t matter if the other person is a bald faced liar or not: Agreement = true, Disagreement = false.
Trump and his dad learned how to be happy with lying due to Norman Vincent Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking. He thinks that if something is true it will become true, therefore everything he thinks is automatically true. Nice “logic” there.
CNN is reporting that the Saudis are preparing a report that admits that Jamal Khashoggi died under interrogation, which would indicate that their earlier claim that he left the consulate alive was bullshit. Also, the story in the OP (that Trump suggested “rogue killers” were responsible for the death of Jamal Khashoggi, seemingly excusing the Saudis from the crime) is also bullshit.
ThelmaLou: So it’s not a question of whether he believes his lies or not. He doesn’t think that way. He doesn’t define truth the way normal people do. Truth is whatever he can get someone to believe, even momentarily. Truth is fluid. Facts are fluid according to his purposes.
Lemur866: Trump just says stuff.
What they said.
It’s hard to pin down Trump in this respect. I believe that much of the time he is lying and he knows he’s lying. Other times, he’s more like a child: He says a thing that he needs to be true in that moment, and he believes it is true in that moment. He has left many people scratching their heads, because an hour or a day later he’ll say the opposite, and he’ll believe it just as hard.
That’s what’s hard to grasp with him. Like Little Nemo said, “His universe is simply Trump.” Understanding this is key to understanding Trump. In a way, it’s a kind of innocence.
One thing you can take to the bank, though: You can believe nothing he says. Nothing.
Which is why it is so inexplicable to me that his supporters believe everything he says.