“Trump never outright lies.”
What is he an Eagle Scout awaiting canonization?
During the campaign he stated about HRC: “If I win I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation – there has never been so many lies and so much deception,”
After he won, he responded to a question about investigating HRC: “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t...she went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways, and I am not looking to hurt them at all. The campaign was vicious.”
Then he went on to make the critical comments about the AG’s inaction with respect to investigating crooked Hillary.
There are three possibilities to explain these contradictions:
1) He lied repeatedly;
2) He is really indecisive and changes his mind a lot;
3) He is acting according to a long-term, well thought out plan
I’m going with option 3.
‘What is he an Eagle Scout awaiting canonization?’
Childish characterization. Trump is a deal maker. He trades on his brand. Both his deal-making ventures and his brand would be ruined if he gained the reputation of a liar.
Trump the victor was willing to forego retaliation in the interests of MAGA. I.e.: he initially thought the best route to MAGA lay in taking a magnanimous approach to the vanquished.
Trump saw soon enough that Hillary wanted no part of the olive branch. He told Sessions to go after her, but Jeff recused. Jeff annointed Trump-hater Rosenstein to be acting AG, and contented himself with expanding civil asset seizures.