Am I imagining this anecdote about Trump?

September 2, 2016 9:40 AM

(Approximately:) Trump was overheard in a waiting room for an interview or event, on a personal call, telling the person on the other end that there were 6 lights in the room when there were only 2.

It stuck out to me (and to the teller of the story) as remarkable for the sheer triviality of it, there was no obvious benefit to him, it seemed like he was just casually inventing the reality around him.

But now I'm searching high and low for this story and I can't find it anywhere. I may have some of the details wrong, so perhaps I'm searching for the wrong terms, but I'm also wondering if I somehow made it up in my head.

posted by bjrubble to Law & Government (9 answers total)

I read an article where it was reported that he lied (to Ivanka of all people) about the circumstances of an interview he was doing, I think how many cameras there were? I can't remember the citation.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:43 AM on September 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah, the camera story rings a bell, having lied to his daughter about the number of cameras in his office for the interview. Weirdly, googling for his lies brings up a lot of other answers, though.
posted by ldthomps at 9:48 AM on September 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

Well, it does sound a lot like the story of Picard and the Cardassians.
posted by praemunire at 9:49 AM on September 2, 2016 [13 favorites]

Something is tickling my brain about this being something written about by Trump's former ghost writer, Tony Schwartz.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:53 AM on September 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I also remember reading it as cameras but ill be damned if my googling Trump+lies+cameras and many many permutations is not paying off.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 9:53 AM on September 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think the story about Trump lying to his daughter about the number of cameras set up in his office was posted as a comment on the Blue, by a Mefi member who was friends with the photographer who overheard the lie.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 9:57 AM on September 2, 2016 [4 favorites]

I am changing my answer. I think EXISTENZ is right. It's in one of the election threads.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:59 AM on September 2, 2016

Best answer: From this interview with Gary Trudeau, posted in one of the recent election threads:

I was talking to a crew member on CNN who said he was in his office setting up a camera—this was a while back—and he overheard Trump talking to his daughter in the outer office. And he said, "Well, there are five cameras in my office." And he said, "Five? There was one. I was setting up one camera." Why lie to your daughter about how many cameras in your—I mean, the most, you know, insignificant things get lied about, and right up to last night, when he was imagining a video he never saw.
posted by bradf at 10:01 AM on September 2, 2016 [31 favorites]

Response by poster: Aha, that's it! Thanks, bradf!
posted by bjrubble at 10:32 AM on September 2, 2016