from Masha Gessen's SURVIVING AUTOCRACY

The Trumpian lie . . . is the power lie, or the bully lie. It is the lie of the bigger kid who took your hat and is wearing it—while denying that he took it. There is no defense against this lie because the point of the lie is to assert power, to show “I can say what I want when I want to.” The power lie conjures a different reality and demands that you choose between your experience and the bully’s demands: Are you going to insist that you are wet from the rain or give in and say that the sun is shining? . . .

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Gessen, Masha. Surviving Autocracy (pp. 106 - 11). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.