It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. He’s pivoted fully, he no longer cares about trying to make sense to anyone but his rabid fan base, and he wants them to come save him. Truth is not objective in authoritarian systems. It’s whatever the authority says it is, and if that changes, then the truth changes.

Violate this and become that one famous guy not saluting Hitler in the famous photo. He died in a concentration camp.