‘Fake news,’ like ‘voter fraud,’ is one of Trump’s favorite ways to soothe his ego

[Commentary] Why does President Donald Trump talk endlessly about fake news? For the same reason he talks about voter fraud: to soothe his ego and hoodwink his supporters.

In a world where voter fraud threw the election and a nefarious news media make up stories to embarrass Trump, Trump is actually the popular, effective pick of the American people. That’s a much nicer thing to be than the broadly unpopular and at times fumbling leader of a country in which a majority of voters preferred someone else. The real question is whether Trump actually believes either of these claims. Does he actually believe that, somehow, millions of votes were cast illegally without any evidence of that emerging a year later? And, probably more important, does he actually believe that the news media make up reports? The main question: Who’s he trying to convince, his supporters or himself? And which of those options is more problematic for the country?