Why is Trump making his spokespersons tell such absurd lies?

Here's an economist's theory:  basically, a kind of loyalty-testing (will you fall on your knife for me?).  This fits, of course, what I said long ago about his Mafia mindset.   Anyway, this is a plausible hypothesis, and it does seem to cry out for some kind of explanation, since it is so bizarre!

(Thanks to Christopher Morris for the pointer.)