I tell lies for a living. Well, what do you expect? I write fiction.

No one calls me out when my novels describe events that didn't really happen. In fact, the more believable I make these lies, the more positive the reviews.

The best fiction authors then convince their fans to suspend disbelief. Donald Trump has clearly mastered this skill. The former president maintains the 2020 election was rigged against him and that he in fact won. Sixty-three percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe him. It doesn't matter that state and federal judges have dismissed over 50 cases alleging electoral fraud. It doesn't matter that the Associated Press' review of voting in six battleground states found nothing that would overturn the reported results.

On Jan. 6, 2021, the Capitol was overrun by those who bought into Trump's story that he had won the election. More than 600 insurrectionists have been convicted for their role in the attack. Leaders of both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers have been found guilty by juries for "specifically conspiring to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power." The House Jan. 6 committee played tapes where we heard the trespassers chanting, "Hang Mike Pence." Body cameras worn by Capitol police show over a thousand assaults on officers, including a vicious beating with a flagpole. Trump's story as told to CNN's Kaitlan Collins on May 11? Those who'd overrun the Capitol "were there with love in their heart ... it was a beautiful day."

A dozen years ago, I sat in my local cafe and wrote a novel where Russians conspire to sway a presidential election. The result was my 2011 thriller "Drop By Drop." It was meant to be fiction, not predictive. In real life, a report of the Senate Intelligence Committee on the 2016 presidential election found "irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling," according to its acting chair, Republican Marco Rubio. In Trump's account, stories of Russian interference were part of a "hoax" perpetrated by Democrats.

Is Trump then a liar? Creating fiction is an essential element of who he is. He's the author of his own narrative. In the story he tells of America's great past, coal fueled a mighty industrial machine, the beauty of Confederate statues stood erect in American cities and crime posed little danger. He spun his tale credibly enough to win a presidential election. In his four White House years, he made 30,573 fictional — false or misleading — statements, according to The Washington Post.

Tens of millions of Americans have spent time in the world of wizards and giants created by J.K. Rowling in her Harry Potter series. President Trump can be viewed as a comparably talented storyteller with over 40% of American adults willing to support him in the polls. I only wish my novels had the same reach.

Does his storytelling stem from delusion or deceit? We can't know, not really. But it doesn't matter. He lives in the world he has constructed. As Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of Trump's "The Art of the Deal," said, "More than anyone else I have ever met, Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true."

In the world of Donald Trump, the Chinese cheat us, the Mexicans infiltrate us, the Muslims terrorize us, the NATO nations exploit us and the journalists deceive us. It's a place where he graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he can have any woman he wants, where the 2020 election was rigged and where the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was "a beautiful day."

Trump, the master storyteller, lives in an alternative world where only he, the hero, can provide a happy ending. If only that world really existed. But alas, it is fiction.

In Keith Raffel's checkered past, he has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started an award-winning internet software company and written five novels, which you can check out at keithraffel.com. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. To find out more about Keith and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.

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