The tactic epitomizes Trump’s “I know you are but what am I?” presidency, a long-held strategy in which Trump turns an accusation back forcefully on his accuser, regardless of how outlandish or fallacious the countercharge may be…

More recently, Trump turned accusations of racism back on the same minority lawmakers whom he had offended. After sending a racist tweet, for instance, in which he urged the four Democratic congresswomen — known as “the Squad” — to “go back” to the countries they came from, Trump described them in another message as “a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart.” And after Trump described the majority-black district of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), who is also black and chairs the House Oversight Committee, as a “rat and rodent infested mess,” the president twice accused his Democratic critics of playing “the race card” and called Cummings “racist” in a tweet…

Going back a bit further, Trump has frequently cast doubt on the assessment of his own intelligence community’s findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential elections with the goal of helping elect him president. But now, he is turning the charge back on his political foes, espousing an unfounded conspiracy theory that a foreign government did interfere in the 2016 contest — but that it was Ukraine, with the goal of helping Democrats.