The Washington Post has performed a public service by keeping count of the number of falsehoods and outright lies future inmate Donald Trump Sr. has told the American public while president: 22,000 as of last month.

One lie that he told before the 2016 election, but repeated many times after was that the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon were celebrated by cheering crowds in Jersey City, New Jersey and that he witnessed this while watching the carnage on television.   TV, Trump’s once, current, and future predominant pastime.  That is, assuming his conduct in prison doesn’t lead to suspension of his viewing privileges.

Several miles north of the Trade Center that day we watched as the North Tower burned, the South Tower (where we worked for seven years) was hit and both towers collapsed.  We also watched as 3,000 people in the planes and the towers were crushed and incinerated and watched as crowds in Ramallah on the West Bank of the Jordan erupted in wild jubilation at the death of Americans and the destruction of a primary symbol of America’s wealth and power.

As terrible and unforgettable as that West Bank celebration was, its power was matched and overwhelmed last Saturday by similarly spontaneous but joyful celebrations “all over this land.”  We participated in one at the subway stop at Broadway and 72nd Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, minutes after Pennsylvania put Biden/Harris over the top and Trump in line for prosecution, conviction and prison.

One can speculate about how much of this jubilation is assignable to the Biden/Harris victory and how much to Trump’s defeat.  Perhaps they are inseparable.

But, call it Karma (instant or the old-fashioned slow cook kind) poetic justice or just a just and angry God – the linkage between one of Trump’s foundational lies and the spontaneous celebration over his demise is no accident.