What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to explain away inviting an anti-government 9/11 conspiracy theorist into the Oval Office for a private meeting and photo op.

Trump himself has spent the day cloistered away at his luxury golf resort in Virginia, pointedly avoiding any further comment on the death of Sen. John McCain. But he sent out his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to try to nip another scandal in the bud.

Trump recently invited Michael William Lebron--also known as "Lionel Media"--into the Oval Office for a photo opportunity. Lebron is a conspiracy fraudster who claims that the September 11th attacks were perpetrated by the U.S. government, which he also claims is putting tracking chips under Americans' skins.  

Lebron is also a major proponent of the "QAnon" hoax, which, in the words of Axios.com reporter Jonathan Swan, "posits that Trump and Robert Mueller have secretly teamed up to take on a global cabal of pedophiles. (Hillary is on the same side as the pedophiles)."

Today, Sanders issued what amounts to the White House's only explanation: "A large group came through the White House for a brief tour and a photo." But as people familiar with White House operations pointed out, even in the notoriously security-lax Trump administration, nobody is invited into the Oval Office on a whim, or without senior staff approving it. Lebron's picture and meeting with Trump, however ill-advised, was certainly arranged by people who knew exactly who he was.

Why does this matter?

• The President of the United States should know better than to let his office be used to promote anti-government frauds.