Yesterday, in an interview with the NY Times (also known by Trump as the “Failing NY Times”) ostensibly on his administration’s plans for infrastructure renewal, President Trump made another unfounded, serious allegation against an individual. In this case, the innocent recipient was Susan Rice, President Obama’s former National Security Advisor and the accusation was that “she had committed a crime”. Without prompting by the reporters, Trump said, “I think the Susan Rice thing is a massive story. I think it’s a massive, massive story. All over the world. It’s a bigger story than you know. It’s one of the biggest stories of our time.” He continued, “What’s happened is terrible.” He also added, “The Russia story is a total hoax. There has been absolutely nothing coming out of that.” Despite the Times reporters’ questions, Trump refused to provide any evidence of his accusations, but said, as he always does in these situations, that he would reveal “more at a later time”.

A quick review: Trump was referring to a made-up story that when Susan Rice was briefed by the NSA on surveillance activity of Russian nationals in the US (the surveillance is continual and the briefings are standard practice), she requested the names of the US citizens who were speaking to the Russians. These requests are common by administration officials with appropriate security clearance. The intelligence agency then determines if the names will be released to the official, essentially “unmasking” the citizen. Some requests are honored and some are denied. Again, all of this happens nearly everyday in the government and all of the information exchanged is Top Secret.

Of course, given the widespread contact among the Trump associates and Russian contacts, some Trump people were “swept up” by the ongoing surveillance. (That’s the interesting part of the surveillance story, by the way.) Out of thin air, fringe media fragments of the far right concocted a story that Susan Rice “unmasked” these people for political reasons and then leaked their names. This fantasy was picked up by “more reputable” right wing media outlets like Breitbart and Fox, still without any substantiation. From that, The President of the United States made a public accusation of a crime about a private citizen who had served her country honorably.

In this case, the method in his madness is to draw attention away from the ongoing, serious investigations swirling around his weakened administration concerning collaboration with Russian intelligence in disrupting the recent US Presidential election and placing him in the White House. (I still can’t believe that I am typing sentences like that.) Even without the buzzards circling his presidency, though, this is his typical m.o. Outlandish, unsubstantiated accusations derived from some off-the-wall source and then promises to provide important revelations and evidence at a later date. Obama’s birth certificate, Ted Cruz’s father’s involvement in the Kennedy assassination, Obama wiretapping his phones are a few of the big lies, but there have been an untold number of small fabrications that he has pronounced during the campaign and since, particularly from the podium.

We grow tired of this man. We grow tired of his antics. When we were sure he was going to lose, we knew that he would disappear on November 9th back into the slime from which he crawled. But that didn’t happen and now we have to pay attention to him. We MUST pay attention to him and allow him no quarter with his lies and his sleight of hand. His antics are so wearisome, but they are also so dangerous. Every day that he and Sean Spicer dominate the news cycle it becomes a little harder to parse out the truth from a situation. His lie about wiretapping caused an inordinate amount of time, energy, and money to be wasted on proving or disproving a fairy tale and reduced the focus on the mind-boggling fact of Russian interference in our election. Now there will be time spent on investigating a reputable woman, Susan Rice, on a complete fabrication. This has to cease.

There are military and diplomatic hot spots all over the world right now. Some time in the near future, the President may have to come before the American people with sobering news of a real threat and outline our response. A response that may put people in harm’s way. How will that work now? This man and his administration have shredded their credibility. Who will believe him and what will happen when we don’t?