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While the rest of the Republican establishment was in full-fledged panic that Donald Trump was marching to the nomination, Kevin McCarthy made a different calculation altogether.

The intensity of support for Trump and his appeal to new voters could help the GOP win, the House majority leader mused in the heat of the presidential primary in March. Trumps message ... if you look at different pockets, he brings Democrats over, McCarthy said at a policy forum in Sacramento, California.

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Those encouraging words and continued loyalty, as the affable 52-year-old Californian stuck by Trump when other Republicans bailed in the final weeks of the campaign has produced one of the most unsung alliances in Washington these days.

McCarthy speaks with Trump several times a week by phone. And Trump dotes on McCarthy, too, even referring to the No. 2 House Republican as my Kevin.

They have a good relationship: Trump trusts Kevin, said Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican whos close to McCarthy. Kevin reached out early on to have a dialogue and they just developed a trust over time.

Its a surprising reversal of fortune for McCarthy, who just 16 months ago had to ditch his bid for speaker in the face of conservative opposition. Now, ironically, the guy who failed to replace John Boehner has sway with the White House matched by few others in Congress.

The unlikely friendship between the "drain the swamp" president and a career politician grew in part because of Trumps rocky history with Speaker Paul Ryan. Multiple sources told POLITICO that McCarthy acted as a conciliator between the two men during the campaign defusing tensions when Ryan criticized Trump or Trump attacked Ryan.

Trump said as much during an inauguration luncheon last month.

Kevin would call me in the heat of battle, right Kevin? And Id be fighting with Paul, Trump said. "And I appreciate it, Kevin!"

The shuttle diplomacy went both ways. McCarthy had urged Ryan to stand by Trump despite his never-ending controversies. And after the election, when Trumps supporters were urging the new president to dump Ryan, McCarthy made the case that Trump needed the policy-savvy speaker to get his agenda through Congress.

When Trump was waffling on Paul, [McCarthy would] call Trump and say, Listen Youre going to need traditional Republican voters, and a lot of them like Paul. It doesnt help rally people to your cause when you attack Paul, said a source close to McCarthy. And likewise with Paul, [McCarthy] was saying, Youve got to find a way to get there with Trump.

"I fought hard to bring the conference together behind Trump," McCarthy told POLITICO in an interview, when asked why Trump was fond of him. "Part of my job was helping him understand who could be his allies inside Congress. But also showing the assets of [a President] Trump to the members."

McCarthy and Trump didn't know each other before the campaign. That changed in March, after Trump spotted a Sacramento Bee story quoting McCarthy saying he thought the ex-reality TV star could be a boon to Republicans.

McCarthy hadnt endorsed Trump by then. In fact, his fellow Republicans gave him flack for suggesting a few days earlier on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Trump had momentum to win the primary. But Trump was grateful and tweeted out the story with praise: Thank you Kevin. With unification of the party, Republican wins will be massive!

A few weeks later, Trump called McCarthy from his cellphone. And going forward, McCarthy made a point of checking in with Trump several times a week.

The bond with Trump came at a sensitive time for McCarthy. He stumbled badly during an October 2015 TV interview when he suggested the House Benghazi investigation was designed to hurt Hillary Clinton politically. Republicans were furious, and a week later McCarthy had to drop his bid for speaker.

McCarthy used his exhaustive knowledge of the House Republican Conference accumulated over years of corralling votes as a former whip to advise Trump. Republicans joke that the onetime deli owner can recall not only their kids' names but which subjects they're failing and their favorite colors.

He likes to reach out and has friendships ... everywhere," said Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.).

McCarthy would call up Trump with intel on how lawmakers were reacting to something the candidate said or proposed. When their schedules overlapped, theyd try to get together meeting up, for example, on Trumps private jet after one California rally.

Trump would tease McCarthy about helping him win California; McCarthy would fill in Trump on the latest in Congress.

Kevin appreciated the larger political dynamic, which was that for Republicans to broadly be successful, we needed Trump to be successful, said a source close to McCarthy. He knew it wouldnt be helpful for us to be attacking Trump or for Trump to be attacking us. The perception that would be created outside D.C. wouldnt be good for anybody establishment Republicans or Trump voters.

McCarthy's toughest test in his role as middleman between Trump and D.C. Republicans came during the low point of Trump's general election campaign: the publication of the "Access Hollywood" video showing Trump bragging about groping women. As senior Republicans debated how to handle the situation and a parade of vulnerable lawmakers cut bait McCarthy urged caution.

His message, as described by sources who spoke with him: Take a deep breath, but don't abandon our nominee.

He thought the idea that somehow Trump would drop out, or the party would remove him, was preposterous, said the source close to McCarthy. So, at the end of the day, whether we had differences or not it didnt serve either sides interest to be shooting at each other.

Ryan, for his part, said he was "sickened" by the video and canceled a joint campaign appearance with Trump in Wisconsin. Ryan also told the Republican conference on a private call that quickly leaked to the media that he would no longer defend the candidate. Furious, Trump responded by calling Ryan a very weak and ineffective leader.

McCarthy again found himself playing mediator. He called up Trump to tell him that headlines about Ryan dumping him were overplayed. McCarthy explained that Ryan was trying to give moderate members of the conference cover, and he pointed out that Ryan didnt withdraw his endorsement.

Nowadays, McCarthy talks to Trump mostly about the House legislative schedule, which McCarthy oversees as majority leader. Trump recently hired two McCarthy staffers to join the White House, including his former floor director, Ben Howard.

The president himself has publicly said how much he likes Kevin, and that corroborates what we know to be true privately, said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), a close friend of McCarthys. I think President Trumps relationship with Paul [Ryan] is quite good. But I just think there is a consistency and a familiarity with Kevin and theres nothing wrong with having two people you can call as opposed to just one.

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Donald Trump's guy on Capitol Hill - Politico

As president, Ronald Reagan spoke movingly of the shock and horror he felt as part of a military film crew documenting firsthand the atrocities of the Nazi death camps.

The story wasnt true.

Years later, an adamant, finger-wagging Bill Clinton looked straight into a live TV camera and told the American people he never had sex with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

He was lying.

Presidents of all stripes and both major political parties have bent, massaged or shaded the truth, elided uncomfortable facts or otherwise misled the public unwittingly or, sometimes, very purposefully.

Its not surprising, said Charles Lewis, a journalism professor at American University who wrote a book chronicling presidential deceptions. Its as old as time itself.

But White House scholars and other students of government agree there has never been a president like Donald Trump, whose volume of falsehoods, misstatements and serial exaggerations on matters large and wincingly small place him in a class by himself, as Texas A&Ms George Edwards put it.

He is by far the most mendacious president in American history, said Edwards, a political scientist who edits the scholarly journal Presidential Studies Quarterly. (His assessment takes in the whole of Trumps hyperbolic history, as the former real estate developer and reality TV personality has only been in office since Jan. 20.)

Edwards then amended his assertion.

I say mendacious, which implies that hes knowingly lying. That may be unfair, Edwards said. He tells more untruths than any president in American history.

The caveat underscores the fraught use of the L-word, requiring, as it does, the certainty that someone is consciously presenting something as true that they know to be false. While there may be plenty of circumstantial evidence to suggest a person is lying, short of crawling inside their head it is difficult to say with absolutely certainty.

When Trump incessantly talks of rampant voter fraud, boasts about the size of his inaugural audience or claims to have seen thousands of people on rooftops in New Jersey celebrating the Sept. 11 attacks, all are demonstrably false. But who can say if he actually believes it, asked Lewis, or whether hes gotten the information from some less-than-reliable news site?

Reagan, who is now among the most beloved of former presidents, was famous for embroidering the truth, especially in the homespun anecdotes he loved to share.

In the case of the Nazi death camps, there was some basis for his claim to be an eyewitness to history: Serving stateside in Culver City during World War II, Reagan was among those who processed raw footage from the camps. In the sympathetic telling, the barbarity struck so deeply that Reagan years later assumed he had been present for the liberation.

Even when he admitted wrongdoing in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal, which cast a dark stain on his administration, Reagan did so in a way that suggested he never meant to deceive.

A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages, Reagan said in a prime-time address from the Oval Office. My heart and my best intentions still tell me thats true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.

Clinton, who famously parsed and tweezed the English language with surgical precision, offered a straight-up confession when admitting he lied about his extramarital affair with Lewinsky, which helped lead to his impeachment.

I misled people, including even my wife, Clinton said, a slight quaver in his voice as he delivered a nationwide address. I deeply regret that.

President Obama took his turn apologizing for promising if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it under the Affordable Care Act; millions of Americans found that not to be true, and PolitiFact, the nonpartisan truth-squadorganization, bestowed the dubious 2013 Lie of the Year honor for Obamas repeated falsehood.

We werent as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taking place, Obama said in an NBC interview. I am sorry that so many are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.

Trump, by contrast, has steadfastly refused to back down, much less apologize, for his copious misstatements. Rather, he typically repeats his claims, often more strenuously, and lashes out at those who point out contrary evidence.

Theres a degree of shamelessness Ive never seen before, said Lewis, the American University professor, echoing a consensus among other presidential scholars. Theres not a whole lot of contrition there.

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, has suggested Trump is unfairly being held to a more skeptical standard by a hostile press corps. Ive never seen it like this, he said at one of his earliest briefings. The default narrative is always negative, and its demoralizing.

Gil Troy, a historian at Montreals McGill University, agreed the relationship between the president and those taking down his words has changed from the days when a new occupant of the White House enjoyed a more lenient standard at least at the start of an administration which allowed for the benefit of the doubt.

That, Troy said, is both Trumps fault he brings a shamelessness and blatancy to his prevarications that is without precedent and the result of a press corps that feels much more emboldened, much more bruised, much angrier after the antagonism of his presidential campaign.

Since taking office, there has been no less hostility from on high; rather, echoing his pugnacious political strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, Trump has declared the media to be the opposition party.

Were watching the birth pangs of a new press corps and a new series of protocols for covering the president, Troy said.

It is sure to be painful all around.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

@markzbarabak

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There's a long history of presidential untruths. Here's why Donald Trump is 'in a class by himself' - Los Angeles Times

New York Times

Donald Trump, Romania, New England Patriots: Your Monday Briefing New York Times The administration has been ordered to file a brief defending Mr. Trump's action. The latest round of legal fighting began on Friday when a Federal District Court judge in Seattle suspended the order nationwide. How much constitutional authority the ... and more »

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Donald Trump, Romania, New England Patriots: Your Monday Briefing - New York Times

President Donald Trump is not having an easy time adjusting to the White House.

Trump and his aides are frustrated by everything from figuring out how to use the cabinet rooms light switches to not letting the constant anti-Trump protests bother them, according to a report by The New York Times on Sunday. The article, which interviewed dozens of government officials, congressional aides, former staff members and other observers of the new administration, also described how Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is concerned by the growing influence of Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, although that may be somewhat offset by Trumps reported frustration at feeling like he hadnt been fully apprised of what his executive order allowing Bannon to sit on the National Security Council would entail indicating that he had not read the executive order before signing it.

As other reports have also indicated, Trump spends a great deal of time watching television, even installing an updated TV in one of the White House rooms so he can follow the news broadcasts while eating his lunch. At the end of the day, when he isnt exploring the White House, he watches TV in his bathrobe, which combined with his regular TV-watching throughout the day has caused some aides to feel his TV-watching is excessive. Trump also seems to be asconcerned with the look of his new White House as its actual policymaking, reportedly poring through a list of 17 window covering options for the Oval Office and ordering his staff to arrange as many televised events in that room as possible.

One friend of Trump, Newsmax Media CEO Chris Ruddy, criticized the presidents staff, telling The Times, I personally think that theyre missing the big picture here. Now hes so caught up, the administration is so caught up in turmoil, perceived chaos, that the Democrats smell blood, the protesters, the media smell blood.

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Donald Trump's White House is plagued with dysfunction: reports - Salon

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters via ZUMA

Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman have a deeply reported story today about the first two weeks of the Trump presidency, filled with lots of juicy little details. But here's what leaped out at me. See if you can figure out what ties together these five excerpts:

Trump watches lots of cable; he monitors Sean Spicer's press briefing every day; and he fills up time between meetings by showing off the decor of the White House. He doesn't seem to be very busy with actual work, does he? And yet, he wasn't fully briefed on a simple executive order, something that would have taken no more than a few minutes. What's more, it's pretty obvious that he's also signed other executive orders that he barely understands.

This is pretty much what we all expected from Trump, but it's still jarring to see it confirmed. He spends a lot of time in front of the television, he obsesses about polls, he keeps an eye on the daily press briefing, he seethes with anger at criticism, and he putters around whenever there are no meetings scheduled. In other words, he still thinks he's the star of a reality TV show. He cares about his image and his ratings, but that's about it. When it comes to making America great again, he expects his staff to take care of things.

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Donald Trump Is Unhappy That His Ratings Aren't Better - Mother Jones