I had the honor and the very good fortune to spend much of my 25-plus year military career teaching at the Air Force Academy. I came there after serving as a “finger on the button” ICMB launch officer up the road from Colorado in Cheyenne. In both assignments there was an absolute premium placed on the concept of honor and truthfulness. At the Academy, the cadets lived under the Honor Code – “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” And I taught my students that this code was practice for the “real” Air Force in which they would serve after graduation. On active duty, I taught, your word must be your bond, because so much is at stake. There was only one “acceptable lie” for a cadet, called the “social lie.” If a cadet found him or herself asked if they enjoyed eating the eggplant and Brussels sprout pizza, they were allowed to say yes to their host. And in checking my spelling just now, I learned that you capitalize the “B” in Brussels sprouts – so even if you hate this column, well, that’s something useful.

Last week our president gave his first official State of the Union address. Required by the Constitution, the SOTU speech gets more attention than it really merits (do you remember the key points of the SOTU from, say, four years ago?). But what the White House said after the speech should give you pause, because it is important.

Which brings us to Senator Joe McCarthy, the infamous demagogue of the 1950s. McCarthy became famous with his reckless and baseless claims of having “lists” of hundreds of communists he claimed worked in the State Department, the US Army, and other places. He never got around to showing anyone that list, but he insisted he was the protector of all that is good in America, against his political enemies, who must be destroyed. In the end, McCarthy destroyed himself, because his entire case against the commies was based on lies. Oh, and he had the nickname “Tail Gunner Joe” because he exaggerated and fabricated his actual military exploits. Oh, and he warned that the greatest danger we faced as a nation were the “enemies within.”

Which brings us to Mr. Trump, and his tweet of the week. He claimed a couple days after the SOTU that “45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history.” That, my dear readers is, what we in the military would call “a lie.” No matter how you count it, at least eight previous SOTU addresses were watched by more people. Even when you factor in on-line views, he is still 9 – 12th most watched.

So why would Mr. Trump tell such a silly lie, a lie so easy to detect? At this point I believe that Mr. Trump has so casual an acquaintanceship with the truth that he simply tells lies out of habit. And far too many of his base just accept that only Trump tells the truth, and the “lame stream media” is always lying. Folks, this is McCarthy-esque. Insist that you only have the “true truth,” trust only in me, and you have yourself a proto-demagogue. Alternative facts and all. And if you want to counter that Obama, or Clinton, or (fill in the blank) lied as much, I disagree, but is that really an argument to defend Mr. Trump being so fundamentally dishonest? Remember the claim about having the largest inaugural crowd ever? When actual photographs proved he was lying, Mr. Trump essentially asked, “who you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

And if you are still ok with these little lies, I’d ask your thoughts on whether you’ve ever met anyone who lies about the little stuff, but is honest about all the big stuff? Do you tolerate lying about little stuff from your kids? This man is the president of the United States, and various media outlets have documented thousands of lies told by Mr. Trump in the last year alone. If that doesn’t outrage you, I’d ask if you would have been equally sanguine with Mr. Obama telling the same number of falsehoods.

I think I’m fortunate to have retired from the USAFA faculty, as I’m not quite sure how I’d go about teaching the Honor Code to my students when their commander in chief seems to have no problem being deeply dishonest. And I find myself left with a disquieting question:

Do we have a Tail Gunner Donald?