On March 21, 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump sat down with The Washington Post's editorial board for a frank conversation. Naturally, the conversation was recorded, transcribed, and published for all the world to see [1] — and, of course, to serve as a record of all the things that now-President Trump once believed about his team, his future policies, and the direction he wanted to take the country in.

A little over 18 months later, three members of Trump's highly praised campaign entourage [2] were revealed to be facing federal charges. And one of those individuals, former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to giving false statements about his dealings with Russia. Trump, of course, was quick to distance himself from those in question. "The Fake News is working overtime. As Paul Manaforts lawyer said, there was 'no collusion' and events mentioned took place long before he... came to the campaign," he tweeted on Oct. 31, adding [3], "few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!"

If anyone were, in fact, to "check the DEMS," it would be unlikely that they'd find anything substantive that connects the two Trump operatives to anyone on the opposing side. But if you check Trump's own statements on Papadopoulos — specifically, the transcript from that Washington Post meeting in 2016 — you might find something interesting there indeed.

When asked about the foreign policy team he had recently assembled, Trump listed off those individuals whom he was able to immediately able to call to mind:

"Walid Phares, who you probably know, PhD, adviser to the House of Representatives caucus, and counter-terrorism expert; Carter Page, PhD; George Papadopoulos, he's an energy and oil consultant, excellent guy; the Honorable Joe Schmitz, [former] inspector general at the Department of Defense; [retired] Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg; and I have quite a few more. But that's a group of some of the people that we are dealing with. We have many other people in different aspects of what we do, but that's a representative group."

Papadopoulos, 30, once an "excellent" guy and now a "low level" liar, is facing up to six months in jail for the crime, which he pleaded guilty to. And in fairness, calling him a liar is probably not the furthest thing from the truth now that we know that he point-blank lied to the FBI. But going forward, Trump might want to consider a different strategy for distancing himself from those who have been deemed guilty by the Department of Justice than calling them names, as he has spent years (literally, years at this point) giving soundbites to the contrary to every outlet that will listen.

For what it's worth, that soundbite didn't go unnoticed by the now-demoted man himself, who of course sought to capitalize on such a glowing recommendation. The very top of Papadopoulos's LinkedIn profile [4] reads, "President Trump recommendation about me: 'George is an oil and gas consultant; excellent guy.'" And it's very unlikely that it will be amended to read "few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar" anytime soon.