Ezra Klein

That they should believe you, not their lying eyes and empty wallets and the videos of chaos in their streets.

Last night at the State of the Union, Donald Trump decisively chose door number three.

At over an hour and 45 minutes, this was the longest State of the Union recorded history.

He had a lot of time to make his case.

And what Trump said again and again was that the American people don't know what they're talking about.

I'm not going to go through a fact check of the president here.

Donald Trump is not a truthful man.

People did not vote for him believing him a truthful man.

They voted for him believing he could solve their problems.

But what I have increasingly wondered over the past year isn't whether Trump is being truthful with us.

but whether he's being truthful with himself or whether the people around him are.

What does Trump know?

What doesn't he know?

Because in his second term, he is surrounded by yes-men and sycophants.

He presides over these cabinet meetings.

You can watch them, where one agency head after another tells him how great he is doing.

how unbelievably well his presidency is going.

He doesn't read lengthy briefing books, we know that.

He doesn't preside over a normal policy process.

He communicates on a social media site he owns.