I don’t remember exactly when I first heard the story of the boy who cried wolf. I do recall getting the gist of that message rather quickly. I understood that if you lie too often you probably won’t be believed when you finally tell the truth. I’ve done my best to be honest and so most people who know me trust me to do right by them. Maybe that story of long ago along with my Catholic school upbringing taught me the importance of honesty. 

I do not understand people who chronically lie but I know that they exist. I have mostly been able to avoid such folks but now and again I get burned. I’ve had some students disappoint me when I learned that they had been stealing or cheating or speaking untruths. Being burned like that feels all too personal and leads to distrust. 

I don’t necessarily drive liars out of my life but I am always wary of accepting their words as truth. The loss of trust tarnishes relationships even when we are able to forgive someone for his or her trespasses. Once the lies become habitual we no longer believe most of what the liar says. We feel cheated with every word.

One of the most remarkable situations that I have ever observed in my decades on this earth is the reality that the man chosen by over seventy million voters to serve as our president lies with almost every word he utters. Donald Trump’s boasts are never credible. He has been so dishonest for the whole of his life that it is almost impossible to accept anything that he says as the truth. For me that is the crux of why I have never been able to support him. Sadly even if he were to suddenly become totally honest I would have doubts as to the veracity of what he says. He has broken his relationship with the American people with bald faced untruths that are so obvious that I cannot even imagine why anyone would believe him.

I suppose that the reflecting pool fiasco is the perfect example of Trump’s propensity for lying and a bit of cheating as well. There was nothing innately wrong with wanting to improve the beauty of the reflecting pool but Donald wanted to cut corners, do things without the common sense practices of getting bids from different contractors and taking advice from people who are experts at doing such things. Instead he gave the deal to a man who builds swimming pools and happens to be a Mar-a-Lago neighbor and heavy supporter. What could possibly have gone wrong?

As it happened the whole deal was undertaken without thought of whether or not it would be done correctly. The job was rushed, thrown together, bound to fail from the beginning. It did not help that Trump inspected the work not from the side of the pool but from inside an incredibly heavy car that drove over the epoxied area only days after it had been applied. Not only did he take such a joy ride but he was accompanied by a number of cars no doubt filled with secret service men and a few cronies. 

Of course we know what happened next. As soon as the pool was filled with water the algae that had been the rationale for the repair began to appear once again. Not even doses of hydrogen peroxide were potent enough to rid the water of the green slime. Then the blue epoxy began to break away from the bottom and float to the top, indicating that something about the installation had failed. 

Trump being Trump was not able to admit that his attempt to repair that reflecting pool had gone awry so as so often happens with him he created the big lie that vandals had damaged the pool. Before his story ended it became the accusation that left wing enemies of the United States had created a three hundred fifty foot slash at the bottom of the pool. 

Of course there was no proof of such a thing, no videos of the culprits, no witnesses who watched the damage happening. In Trump world all we are supposed to heed is his word only but time and again we have learned that his word is more often than not a lie. And so it was with the reflecting pool but not before he had laid blame on others including a former olympiad. He refused to speak the truth even when the pool was drained showing that nobody had created the damaging slash that he still claims. The many million dollar fix that was never approved by Congress or the American people was simply a poorly executed attempt done by someone who most likely did not know what he was doing. 

Trump will never accept that the scenarios he creates in his own mind are simply not true. He has lied so much in his eighty years on this earth that he does not seem to know the difference between truth and falsehood. Little that comes from his mouth can be trusted because there is so much evidence that he creates his own reality to cushion himself for ever admitting responsibility for anything that goes wrong. 

It is a very sad state of affairs that many Americans have gone from enshrining honesty in our children to openly supporting a man who is such an obvious prevaricator. I suppose that P. T. Barnum was right that gullible people are all around us. Trump uses those “suckers” every single day knowing that while many of us are on to his dishonesty many others are willing to look away. That is a problem for us all.