We stand accused of not giving President Trump credit for anything. Nonsense.

Let’s stipulate, for instance, that Donald Trump has a genius for making a mess. The latest addition to Trump’s list of crackpot conspiracy sideshows has expanded his repertoire. Trump is now at the top of his game when it comes to converting his claptrap into a genuine crisis of governance.

This latest through-the-looking-glass moment in the Trump era began when the president’s Republican supporters in the House of Representatives, led by Devin Nunes of California, repeatedly requested background on the FBI informant who met with Trump campaign aides in 2016. The FBI stated the informant was attempting to learn what the aides knew of the Russian hacking of emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign.

It’s called investigating. That’s the “I” in the agency’s acronym.

Enter Donald J. Trump and his amazing fog machine. Trump, in a series of Tweets and several on-camera appearances, suggested there might be great evidence to suspect that perhaps, maybe, a secret cell of corrupt FBI partisans possibly planted a “spy” in the Trump campaign to assist in electing Clinton as president.

“Worse than Watergate,” was what Trump called it. Perhaps, if there was any semblance of truth to the tale.

Instead, it is utter and complete nonsense; standard issue when this president gins up the spin cycle on his dissembling.

Let’s take a moment to review a few of Trump’s previous crusades of falsehoods. Remember the traveling circus where Trump starred in questioning Barack Obama’s natural-born citizenship? Recall Trump’s creation of a commission to investigate what he said was widespread voter fraud in 2016? That ended quickly because absolutely no evidence could be uncovered. Who can forget Trump’s baseless accusation that Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped? Now comes “Spygate,” yet another in a series of idle canards.

Trump’s cockamamie conspiracy theories gain traction from his media enablers at Fox News, Brietbart and NewsMax. Sprinkle in a few wing nuts from the Republican House Freedom Caucus (i.e. its hard-right caucus) and, presto, instant congressional oversight credibility! At least in the eyes of the willingly gullible.

What does it say about the state of our country when the leader for our nation lies openly and often without consequence? How can the Republican Party tolerate a commonly acknowledged con artist as its standard bearer?

That’s one more thing we give Trump credit for — destroying the credibility of an entire political party.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.