Once, long ago when I was a much younger man, I used to hang on the president of the United States’ every word. When he spoke them, I just knew he was telling me at least his version of the truth.

Was he shading the truth a little to make himself sound better and feel better? Oh, probably. It didn’t matter as long as the fundementals of his statement were based in fact.

The current president? The guy we’ve got in power for the next three years? I have turned 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

I believe nothing that comes from Donald Trump’s overfed pie hole. Zero. Nothing he says means anything to me at this stage of his time in office or in my life as an American patriot.

Please understand that I take no joy in harboring this cynical view. I am not a cynic by nature, unlike some of my former journalism colleagues who actually used to boast about their cynicism. A cynical approach to covering the news or commenting on it is as unhealthy as being gullible enough to believe every single word that comes from a politician.

The current White House occupant, however, has filled even me with cynicism that I find uncomfortable. How can that be? His lying over any issue imaginable — from the epic to the trivial — has become the stuff of legend. The Washington Post counted something like 30,000 instances of lying during Trump’s first term in office from January 2027 until January 2021. No telling how many more thousands of lies he has told just in the first year of his second term.

I will stipulate one more time that I do revere the office of president. It is noble, grand and powerful. Donald Trump has done all he can do to diminish the office in my own mind’s standing. He’s done so by lying whenever he has something to say.