[redler]

There are only three possibilities I can see:

1) The President and his staff are mistaken, but honestly believe what they say

2) The President and his staff are lying, and know they are spreading falsehoods

3) The President and his staff are delusional

What other options are there?

If (1) is the case, and the actual facts are presented and they refuse to believe them, that would also seem to imply (3).

[iconjack]

4) The President and his staff are correct, despite prevailing opinion of scientists and media.

[redler]

That's possible, but the premise of these three points is how they deal with facts that they -- ok, almost certainly "he" -- does not like.

That they are willing to outright lie to the world about simple facts that are plainly obvious even to a child (e.g. crowd size in photographs) does not bode well for their representation of complex, nuanced, and consequential information.

I suppose there is a fourth possibility: this is a dominance game for the President, forcing staffers to lie about his hobbyhorses, knowing millions will accept the pronouncements as truth, and winking at his infuriated opponents. If he'll say his crowd was the largest in history when it's plain to all that it was not, what will he say about some new "Presidential voter fraud investigation" whose conclusions will be used to further suppress the vote and "make him correct"?

Edit: clarity

[davexunit]

No, that's not possible.