Donald Trump's fake Renoir painting

Tim O'Brien, author of the 2005 biography, TrumpNation:  The Art of Being Donald Trump, has a story about how Trump believes his own lies.   O'Brien tells of being with Trump on his private jet while researching the book.  

Trump pointed to a painting on the wall of the plane cabin and boasted, "That's an original Renoir."  O'Brien said he replied:  "No it's not, Donald.   I grew up in Chicago, and that Renoir is called 'Two Sisters on a Terrace' and it's hanging on a wall at the Art Institute of Chicago.'  We get on the plane the next day, and he points to the painting again, and he said, 'You know, that's an original Renoir."'

O'Brien continues:   "One of the reasons that story is so emblematic of him is, he believes his own lies, in a way that lasts for decades, and he'll tells the same stories, time and again regardless of whether the facts are right there in front of his face."

A spokesperson for The Art Institute told the Chicago Tribune that they are "satisfied that our version is real."   Yet despite this, and 12 years later, the same fake Renoir appears in the background in a TV interview with Trump and Mike Pence in the penthouse in Trump Tower, apparently moved there when he sold his plane.

There is nothing wrong with hanging a copy of a famous painting on your wall.  I have framed photo prints of two Picasso paintings and another print of a Matisse painting hanging on my walls -- because I love the paintings.   But they are not fake paintings;  they're clearly identified as printed copies and tell what art museum has the original painting.  The duplicity is in trying to pass off an artist-painted copy and falsely tell people it's the original.

I find it very disturbing -- but true -- that there is a serious question of whether Trump does actually believe his lies.   And, if he doesn't actually believe them, then what is behind his repetition of the lies, even when someone has exposed the lie as O'Brien did here?

Or, to put it another way, which has equally ominous implications for his state of mind:    Is he perhaps oblivious to the difference between reality and fantasy?

This is one of the strange, burning questions about how Donald Trump's mind works.   How can our allies possibly trust such a man to negotiate cooperative agreements with them or -- heaven forbid -- how could an adversary like North Korea ever negotiate any sort of nuclear arms treaty with him as our president, given the demonstrated unreliability of his word?

Ralph