The Intent Of Fake News Claims

It's important to understand why Trump and friends keep hammering away about fake news. Here are a few advantages to this tactic:

1. These claims undermine media credibility, especially among Trump supporters and low-information, low-education citizens. I suppose I'm being redundant there.
2. As the media reports on the impact of Trump policy, Trump can continue his prodigious lying campaigns to create an alternate reality for his supporters. According to the WaPo Fact Checker, Trump lied 493 times in his first 100 days - this is an average of nearly 5 times per day.
3. His lies target the fears and anxieties of vulnerable citizens. The lies then enter the echo chamber of the far-right media machine where they are reinforced and taken as gospel. His supporters are worked up into a fever pitch, and nothing Trump does will impact their support of him. Thus you get candidate Trump saying he could stand on 5th Ave in NY and shoot people and not lose a single vote.

Trump has an uncanny ability to repeat outrageous conspiracy theories from illegitimate sources and then, when he's called on his lies, simply shift to a new lie. The rate at which he lies makes it impossible for fact checkers to keep up.

He is a dangerous demagogue. His lies must always be met with truth, even if we have difficulty keeping up.