Trump has been exposed as a liar yet again, as the Russia scandal deepens.

What’s going on?

On Monday, Trump tweeted that Democrats made up the Russia scandal to distract from their own failures, and that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated there’s no evidence Trump colluded with Russia prior to the election.

But in fact, the FBI has been investigating these possible links since last summer, according to the Washington Post. FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the investigation is ongoing, while directly contradicting Trump’s claim that President Obama had him wiretapped last year.

In other words: Trump keeps lying about, well, almost everything.

Why is it important?

That politicians lie is taken for granted, especially in these cynical times. And plenty of politicians do stretch the truth, or make things up out of whole cloth. But bald-faced lying hasn’t really been the norm–Presidents caught doing this have often landed in heaps of trouble. President Nixon was brought down when he lied about what he knew regarding the Watergate break-in. President Clinton might have saved himself a lot of trouble (not to mention an impeachment) by simply telling the truth about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. The fact is that when Presidents tell lies and get caught, the consequences can be severe.

So why are the consequences for Trump virtually nonexistent? I think this is a matter of perspective. Since he cannot easily be removed from office in the near term, he is being worked around, obstructed, and resisted. Every word out of his mouth (and smartphone) is untrustworthy, which undermines confidence in the office of the President and creates so much uncertainty that the rest of the world is obliged to act on their own and from the assumption that they simply can’t trust anything he says or promises. In short, it is causing tremendous damage to our international relations, which are vitally important to seeing our interests served. It is a multipolar, interdependent system we inhabit, and to act as if we can go it alone and don’t need anyone else is utterly foolish–and we are the ones who will lose out.

What can I do?

As always, continue to spread the truth and don’t let Trump’s lies pass unchallenged. Resist and oppose in any way you can. Tell Congress to investigate and discredit his falsehoods. For the most part, we all just have to ride this out and hope he is run out of office soon and that as much damage as possible is mitigated in the meantime.