In Reply to: Trump doing it at a magical level posted by russsmith on May 31, 2025 at 14:40:09
that popped in his head at the moment, he felt like he should give some number that sounds high enough and is not some rounding off so that he sounds intelligent saying it. It could have easily been 3.7, 4.2, 7.16 ... whatever flows out of his mouth in the moment.
I'd been saying during Trump 1 that what Trump is is not a liar, but a bullsh*tter, i.e., someone who does not care about the truth value of his propositions or is concerned in any way whether you believe him or not. (Check out Frankfurt's essay "On Bullsh*t", if you haven't. It's a quick read with some repetition, but pretty clarifying.)
(Incidentally, that's also why I don't consider wood a liar per se. Sure, he makes false claims all the time, but at his core, he's a bullsh*tter, just like his dear leader.)