Trump hopes to prevaricate his way to victory with immigration hysteria.

The White House has scored a major propaganda coup by getting the story of the “caravan” of migrants supposedly heading towards the American border to dominate headlines. But as The Daily Beast reports, that story is based on on “mistruths and embellishment.”

One senior administration official told the website that, “It doesn’t matter if it’s 100 percent accurate.” The official justified the falsehoods by saying, “This is the play.”

A GOP operative took the same line, saying, “Soros is probably not masterminding these people coming to the border.” The operative added that, “When it comes to allowing segments of the base to believe what they want to believe, it happens on both sides. Republicans are no more guilty of it than Democrats.”

The appeal of the “caravan” story is that it riles up the Republican base, as did fear of mass migration from Latin American in other recent cycles. “It’s an issue that motivates Trump’s most ardent conservative base,” the operative told The Daily Beast. “If your worry was that we’re not going to be able to turn our base voters out, well—what’s the opposite of kryptonite?”

In a press gaggle on Tuesday as to whether there is proof of his earlier claim that there were “Middle Easterners” in the “caravan” President Donald Trump responded. “There could very well be.” Asked again if there was proof, he said, “There is no proof of anything.” It was unclear whether he was addressing the issue on hand or making a broader statement of epistemological nihilism.