President Donald Trump is now reportedly attempting to cast doubt on the authenticity of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, marking a new and troubling low for presidential trust. Americans know Trump to be a prodigious liar, but now aides say he's backing away from comments that the country heard him make, comments that he admitted making and for which he apologized. Twice.

Most politicians bend the truth at times, but Trump is something new: He won't recognize the existence of recorded, verifiable fact. In traumatized children, psychologists describe a phenomenon called "primary process lying," or instinctive lying in the face of the obvious. A damaged child doesn't know that the person to whom he's lying knows the truth. Trump lies like a traumatized child.

The New York Times and The Washington Post reported Wednesday that, in recent weeks, Trump has privately told aides that there are doubts that it's his voice on the "Access Hollywood" tape. He said the same thing shortly before his inauguration, telling a Republican senator, "We don't think that was my voice."

In comments Trump made as he prepared to make a cameo appearance on a 2005 episode of the soap opera "Days of Our Lives," Trump and "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush are heard on an audio recording discussing one of the show's stars, Arianne Zucker. Trump is heard saying, "Yeah, that's her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything" — including, he later says, grabbing them by their genitalia.

When the tape surfaced in October 2016, Trump apologized: "I've said some things that I regret and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them." A few days later, in his second debate with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump said, "This was locker room talk. I'm not proud of it, I apologize to my family, I apologize to the American people."

Now he's not sure if it's his voice?

With the recent flood of sexual assault and harassment allegations made against powerful men, the tape is newly relevant. Summer Zervos, one of 13 women who have accused Trump of behavior like he described on the "Access Hollywood" tape - or worse — has filed a defamation suit against him for saying her accusations were "lies" and "nonsense."

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the American people settled this issue when they elected Trump. But now the president, with his bizarre lying, has resurrected and unsettled it. Trump's history with women is despicable. His tenuous grasp of reality is truly dangerous.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH