What did Donald Trump do today?

He lied about the intelligence findings he fired his Director of National Intelligence for telling Congress.

Today, Trump tweeted this:

There's never really been any mystery about whether the Putin regime wants Trump to stay in power, or whether Trump was looking for that help. He famously begged Russia to hack his opponents on live TV during the 2016 election—a call for help that Russia answered the very same day. And he said he'd be open to further foreign interference on his behalf in an interview last year.

Putin himself openly admitted, while standing next to Trump at a joint press conference in Finland, that he directed his government to help Trump get elected. 

JEFF MASON (REUTERS): President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?  

PUTIN: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the US/Russia relationship back to normal.

Trump, bizarrely, still denies this—but the White House edited the question Putin was asked on the transcript to make it look less damning.

This week, Trump fired his acting Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Joseph Maguire, because his staff briefed the House Intelligence Committee on their knowledge that Russia was once again working to sow chaos and distrust in the American election system in order to have Trump re-elected. 

In other words, Trump is accusing his political opponents of exactly the thing Russia is doing to help him get elected—and in the process calling his own administration liars.

Why should I care about this?

• A president who can't or won't defend American democracy doesn't deserve the office.