The response from Trump supporters, both in the media and in the wild, to Sean Spicer’s Saturday press conference were instructive. It basically boiled down to:

(1) The pictures are a lie. There were way more people for Trump than for Obama.

(2) Of course there weren’t as many people there for Trump, because the people who love Trump were scared off by all the violent leftist protestors. Or the increased security. Or the rain. Or whatever. Not Trump’s fault.

(3) So maybe there were a few more people at Obama’s inauguration. But who cares if Trump is having his spokesman lie about this stuff from the White House press room? The media lies all the time, and way worse. Forget about Trump and Spicer—the media are the real enemy here.

(4) Trump is playing 17-dimensional chess and his “lying” is part of the master plan. It’s a feature, not a bug. MAGA, bitches.

(Funnily enough, in his remarks to the press Spicer more or less went through this progression all by himself.)