https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-history-of-lying-from-john-barron-to-realdonaldtrump
"Another lesson that Trump seems to have learned early is that, if you are going to make things up, there’s no point underdoing it. When he was running for President, he claimed to be worth more than ten billion dollars, even though most independent analysts reckoned the true figure was less than half that. “Trump has latched onto such fanciful figures not simply because he’s insecure about his wealth but because he knows that pretending he has that kind of money keeps him in the media’s eye and keeps potential business partners interested in him,” Timothy L. O’Brien, the author of a critical 2005 biography of Trump, noted at Bloomberg View on Monday. “It’s all part of the long con.” A long con, indeed. And a tactic that Trump continues to use. In the past few days alone, the President has claimed that North Korea has already “agreed to denuclearization.” (It hasn’t). He has described his Mar-a-Lago resort as “the Southern White House.” (It’s a Trump enterprise, not a public building.) And he’s said that his poll numbers are the highest ever. (The latest Gallup survey puts his job approval at just thirty-eight per cent.) About the only difference, these days, is that when Trump has a self-serving whopper to spread around, he goes on Twitter and attaches his own name to it. In the age of @realDonaldTrump, there is no longer any need for John Barron."
