US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, November 16, at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida. Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

The pattern has repeated itself for years.

Step 1: President Donald Trump makes a false or inflammatory claim.

Step 2: Trump’s officials try to walk back the claim. They’ll say Trump meant something else or offer a statement more factual than Trump’s own.

Step 3: Trump ignores them and repeats the original claim.

It happened twice in the last 24 hours, once on grocery prices and once on the deployment of FBI agents during the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Grocery prices

Customers use a self checkout lane at a Walmart Supercenter in Floirida on October 10. Jeffrey Greenberg

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