Over the weekend the alleged Russian mob fixer and money launderer Paul Manafort (NTTAWWT), continued to make bizarre, Trump-esque allegations about the Ted Cruz campaign “cheating” in Colorado and even went so far as to claim that the Trump campaign would be making unspecified “protests” over unspecified grievances in both Colorado and Missouri.

MANAFORT: And we’ll — we’ll be filing protests. Missouri, we’re going to be filing protests. Colorado, we’re going to be filing protests.

And you saw in Colorado last week where the — the voters were left out of the process, the — a groundswell of support again the system.

Apparently, the grievance is that no one provided the Trump campaign with a certified English-to-stupid translator. But anything is possible in a world where 200 confused, slack-jawed imbeciles is construed as a “groundswell of support.”

This is just another attempt by the goons running the Trump campaign, to the extent that anyone is actually running it, to gaslight the public. Last week, Manafort was spinning yet another lie about Colorado:

PAUL MANAFORT: I acknowledge that we weren’t playing in Colorado and they did.

Which is it? Did they cheat? Or did you not play? POLITICO’s reporter covering the GOP primary had this to say:

Trump’s @PaulManafort to @chucktodd: “We weren’t playing in Colorado.” Um, you hired an operative and ran a slate. https://t.co/rHdQ0eSYqc

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) April 10, 2016

The fact is that Trump had a state director in Colorado. He was fired the week before the Colorado convention by the vicious niblet, Corey Lewandowki; he was collateral damage in the internecine blood sport that passes for staff coordination in the Trump campaign. And the Trump campaign had been playing. And, right up until they had their ass handed to them, the “delegate wrangler” for the Trump campaign, Barry Bennett, was talking smack. Via another POLITICO reporter:

Direct quote from Barry Bennett on March 31: “We’re kicking his butt in Colorado.” https://t.co/lvDmgeUA9H

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 10, 2016

The Trump campaign was not treated unfairly in Colorado. They had the exact same opportunity as the Cruz campaign to win delegates and they were boasting that they would trounce Cruz. But when you hire buffoons and imbeciles unfortunate things happen.

The simple fact is that the Trump campaign runs on wishful thinking. If someone says something that means it is real. All of this leads me to be more and more convinced that Donald Trump is constructing an exit strategy from his long-con-gone-wrong.