The Bullshitter-in-Chief
Donald Trump says a lot of things that arent true, often shamelessly so, and its tempting to call him a liar.
But thats not quite right. As the Princeton University philosophy professor Harry Frankfurt put it in a famous essay, to lie presumes a kind of awareness of and interest in the truth and the goal is to convince the audience that the false thing you are saying is in fact true. Trump, more often than not, isnt interested in convincing anyone of anything. Hes a bullshitter who simply doesnt care.
In Trump's own book, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, our now-president describes himself in a way that Frankfurt could hold up as the quintessential example of a bullshitter. Trump writes that hes an "I say whats on my mind" kind of guy. Pages later, he explains that doesnt mean hes necessarily an honest guy.
"If you do things a little differently," he writes of the media, "if you say outrageous things and fight back, they love you." The free publicity that results from deliberately provoking controversy is invaluable. And if a bit of exaggeration is what it takes, Trump doesnt have a problem with that. "When," he asks "was the last time you saw a sign hanging outside a pizzeria claiming The fourth best pizza in the world?!"
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/30/15631710/trump-bullshit