Then, in the afternoon, Trump tweeted — falsely — that millions voted illegally in the presidential election, and that he would have won the popular vote if you didn’t count them. Not only did that make him seem like a sore winner, it legitimized the recount efforts out there (if there’s voter fraud, shouldn’t there be a recount after all?), and it conveniently distracted from a bigger story that day (the New York Times’ exposé on Trump’s conflicts of interest). So there’s your Trump presidency in a nutshell. Thin-skinned rants. Feuding aides. Conspiracy theories. And all a distraction from the bigger issues out there.

There’s one more consequence to the rants, feuds, and conspiracy theories: They end up delegitimizing the media — and the country’s democracy. Think about it: Every time Trump claims, without substantiation, that millions voted illegally, and every time the news media call him out for it, that only delegitimizes the media among Trump’s supporters. And then when the same media write and cover Trump’s conflicts of interests (or policy proposals or anything else), those same supporters won’t believe a word of it. Will the media be alone in this challenge? Or will members of BOTH parties decide that what’s happening to two key institutions — the press and the vote — is worth fighting for? By the way, who has been the biggest driver of the story that millions voted illegally in the election? Try InfoWars’ Alex Jones…