What unites Greenland, Venezuela and Ukraine? Trump's immoral lies and Europe's chronic weakness | Simon Tisdall

The president's inability to tell right from wrong fuels his increasingly dictatorial, illegal and erratic behaviour

Donald Trump made 30,573 false or misleading" claims during his first term, according to calculations published in 2021 by the Washington Post. That's roughly 21 fibs a day. Second time around, he's still hard at it, lying to Americans and the world on a daily basis. Trump's disregard for truth and honesty in public life - seen again in his despicable response to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis - is dangerously immoral.

Trump declared last week that the only constraint on his power is my own morality, my own mind". That explains a lot. His idea of right and wrong is wholly subjective. He is his own ethical and legal adviser, his own priest and confessor. He is a church of one. Trump lies to himself as well as everyone else. And the resulting damage is pernicious. It costs lives, harms democracy and destroys trust between nations.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator