"The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots... His public life is an endless series of evasions and false pretences. He is willing to embrace any issue, however idiotic, that will get him votes, and he is willing to sacrifice any principle, however sound, that will lose them for him… He may be, on the one hand, a cross-roads idler striving to get into the State Legislature … or he may be, on the other, the President of the United States."—H. L. Mencken

There's an old saying that when you point a finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at you.

It's what psychologists refer to as projection—the act of accusing others of the very misconduct one is engaged in.

While politicians of all political stripes are guilty of projection, Donald Trump, aptly dubbed a "master of projection," could teach a master class in accusing others of wrongdoing of which he is guilty.

Trump has repeatedly framed himself as a victim of corruption while weaponizing the machinery of government for personal, political, and financial gain. He rails against censorship while threatening journalists, blacklisting law firms, and punishing dissenters. He decries political persecution while using federal power to retaliate against critics and whistleblowers, condemning 'rigged systems' even as he stacks courts, rewrites rules, and demands loyalty over law.

Nowhere is this hypocrisy more evident than in Trump's "Stop the Steal" campaign—a slogan that metastasized into a violent assault on democratic norms and culminated in a riot when Trump's supporters forced their way into the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the electoral votes in an election Trump lost.

Five years after January 6, we find ourselves navigating a strange and dangerous new reality:

• A president who pardons thousands of rioters who violently assaulted police officers, while threatening harsh punishment against protesters who challenge government authority in other contexts.

• A president who pardons a convicted drug trafficker while authorizing the abduction and indefinite detention of others without due process.

• A president who lectures foreign governments about suppressing dissent while seeking to criminalize protest, speech, and association at home.

• A president who claims to defend American sovereignty while exploiting public office to extract resources, favors, and concessions for private and political gain.

• A president who champions "law and order" while selectively enforcing the law—rewarding loyalty, punishing opposition, and dismantling checks on executive power.

Stop the steal, indeed.