Dog bites man. President Trump lies.
These two phrases may as well be interchangeable as colloquial idioms nowadays.
Trump lies so much that The Washington Post has had to keep a running tally of his mendacity — over 7,600 lies since his inauguration so far or 15 false statement each day in 2018 if you’re keeping track of the latest totals.
No lie is too big — Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a registered Republican, and his team are a bunch of “Angry Democrats” on a “Witch Hunt” — or too small — like his current location — for the president.
Trump was caught in that last little lie this morning when he sent out this hectoring tweet asking Democrats to come back from vacation, despite the fact that until Thursday Republicans still control both houses of Congress.
I’m in the Oval Office. Democrats, come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for Border Security, including the Wall. You voted yes in 2006 and 2013. One more yes, but with me in office, I’ll get it built, and Fast!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2018
While Trump has supposedly foregone his planned trip to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort due to the Government shutdown he initiated and is now trying to blame on Democrats and has remained in the White House over the Christmas holiday, the man who invented the term “executive time” to mask his habit of sleeping in and live tweeting Fox & Friends was caught lying about his whereabouts this particular morning by sharp-eyed White House reporters.
Trump tweeted at 10:37AM: "I'm in the Oval Office."
The pool report, at 11:02AM, said: "No Marine posted outside of the West Wing as of 11am."
When the president is in West Wing (in the Oval, for example) a Marine always stands guard. No Marine means no Trump.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 31, 2018
Rumors from within an administration hampered by a communications staff described currently as “a zombie comms shop, Night of the Living Dead” are saying that the beleaguered president has taken to not bothering to show up for work until almost Noon if he bothers to show up at all.
NBC’s @HansNichols just mentioned that Trump has not yet come to work. He’s likely been watching TV in the residence all morning.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) December 12, 2018
OF course, when you think your job consists of watching TV and sending propaganda over Twitter, it really doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in your bedroom in your pajamas or in the Oval Office, does it?
The real question is if President Trump is not in the Oval Office today, does that mean that he decided to go to Mar-a-Lago after all so as not to disappoint the guests who paid $1,000 per ticket for the chance to mingle with the President and his felonious family at the government-subsidized New Years Eve party?
We are paying for security for the Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve party during the Trump shutdown. Secret Service can continue providing essential security during a lapse of appropriations, but it’s Trump who decides that govt officials need to be at his for-profit event. Shameless! https://t.co/gGDkpL3A5X
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) December 27, 2018
We will find out soon enough if Trump thinks his party is worth the negative attention he will draw if he spends his New Years Eve in tackily extravagant surroundings while 800,000 federal workers go without paychecks due to his recalcitrant refusal to sign the legislation reopening the government without funding for his border wall.
After all, it may be the last New Years Eve he has as a free man if any one of the 17 separate investigations into Trump and his businesses reaches a conclusion in 2019.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.