Mr Glib and Shameless continues to push his lies about an Ibrox opportunity squandered.

If you need proof that most people don’t truly understand what they think they do, just look across the Atlantic. A significant number of Americans believe their country is in the midst of a recession and that the economy is collapsing. But this isn’t true.

Rising prices might make it feel that way, but by any objective measure, the economy is far from collapsing. This belief, however, is why Trump remains competitive in a race that shouldn’t even be close, especially now that the Democrats have replaced Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.

But the deeper issue here isn’t just about this lack of understanding; it’s about a fundamental misjudgement of what people see and think the candidates stand for. Harris and Walz, by any objective standard, are offering a much better prospectus for improving people’s lives. And I say that not out of bias, but because it’s a simple fact.

They’re the ones talking about an economy that works for everyone, whereas Trump continues to promise tax breaks for the wealthy. While Trump insults people and indulges in rambling fantasies, the Democrats are focused on rebuilding the middle class.

There’s also a much bigger issue: Trump’s only concrete economic policy proposal is so outrageously bad that no serious economist in the United States would endorse it with a straight face.

His plan to impose tariffs on all imports to the United States, supposedly to improve the economy, will do the opposite. It will drive up prices, which are already high, and further impoverish struggling people. Every credible expert has said over and over that these tariffs would crater the economy rather than fix it.

Yet, a significant number of American voters trust Trump on the economy more than they trust Harris and Walz. If he wins this election, that will be the primary reason: a colossal misunderstanding of what he’s actually proposing and the impact it will have on the lives of ordinary American consumers.

This kind of thinking isn’t unique to politics. You see a similar mentality when you look across at Ibrox, especially on their fan forums, where Dave King is worshipped as a hero and his words treated as gospel. This is a man whom a South African judge called a “glib and shameless liar,” who took over the club on the back of more than 80 tax convictions that could have landed him in prison for decades, had he not struck a deal with prosecutors.

Many of their fans have convinced themselves that, although King has a well-documented history of deceit, they are somehow to be spared this kind of behaviour, and that whilst he will happily lie to everyone else he will never lie to them.

Yet, he has demonstrably, shamelessly, lied to them on numerous occasions.

The truth is, most people are inherently trusting. It doesn’t matter how many times they are told to view everything with a cynical eye; most people want to believe that others are fundamentally honest. But history teaches us over and over again that this is not the case.

King fascinates me in much the same way that Trump does.

How can these men act so dishonestly, with such obvious contempt for others, and still maintain a base of trust? Recently, King has been in the headlines, and almost every word he’s said has been disingenuous rubbish. I wrote earlier about how he stood up for James Tavernier, but there was a clear streak of self-interest running through it, dressed up as principle—something which has never applied to King in any meaningful way.

And yet, there remains a large section of the Ibrox fan base that believes every word that comes out of his mouth, despite his track record of dishonesty. His recent claim that the current Ibrox board squandered some advantage after their so-called “55th” title is contradicted by every available fact, including his own statements about “front-loaded spending.”

King knew full well that the COVID period was financially disastrous for the club, with losses in the tens of millions that necessitated cost-cutting and player sales. There was no magical pot of money hidden somewhere to fund another spending spree. Celtic, by contrast, weathered that storm because of a cash surplus. Without it, we would have had our own difficulties, but our financial position was far more stable.

The audacity of King’s claims—that their club had an opportunity to pull clear of Celtic—defies belief. Our financial position was vastly more robust, and it’s astonishing that he and others get away with pushing such a fiction. It’s easy to demand that directors dip into their own pockets, but notice that King does so from the other side of the world, without the risk of anyone suggesting he put up his own money.

Ibrox fans seem to idolise King, despite his poor record. Since King walked through the Ibrox gates, Celtic has won five trebles and two doubles in eight seasons. That’s his legacy. He wasn’t even on the board when they won their “COVID title”—he’d already been ousted after the City of London takeover panel ruled against him.

And let’s not forget Steven Gerrard, who’s been mythologised almost as much as King himself. King still pushes the narrative that Gerrard could have built an Ibrox dynasty if only he’d been backed. But who truly believes that? Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers would have put him in their pockets. Even Gerrard saw the writing on the wall and left before he could be sacked. His time in Saudi Arabia now is a testament to his lack of options in Europe.

It all circles back to the same point: people looking at something and not understanding it, despite all the facts being right there. King is doing what he has always done: telling lies. His fans, meanwhile, remain convinced that their club had an opportunity they squandered, although it’s clear that the money wasn’t there for them to capitalise on it.

They don’t understand their club’s state or how much better Celtic emerged from that period. They refuse to acknowledge that Ange Postecoglou built a Celtic team that Gerrard and his side were never going to touch.

The guy who replaced Gerrard, who we eventually beat to the title, was clearly a better manager with more experience and a stronger track record, and he even got them to a European final—something Gerrard was never going to achieve. So how does anyone at Ibrox think Gerrard had the beating of Ange when Van Bronckhorst didn’t?

I struggle to understand Brexit supporters, Americans who cling to false beliefs about their economy, and anyone who thinks Trump genuinely cares about them. But I do understand the Ibrox fans and their need to believe that the future was theirs and that it’s been stolen from them by some vast conspiracy or sheer incompetence.

But I cannot understand anyone trusting Dave King at all. Believing in Dave King is akin to believing in Donald Trump.

In the end, if you’re still listening to a word that comes out of King’s mouth, you’re just asking to be taken for a ride. He’s not serving the fans or shareholders’ interests but continuing his vendetta against those who ousted him from the Ibrox board and trying to undermine Celtic’s recent successes by blaming mistakes made at Ibrox.

And yet, in a strange way, King often projects the truth without even realising it. Part of Celtic’s success is indeed due to mistakes made at Ibrox, but the biggest mistake of all was that anyone ever trusted him.

If we’re giving credit to directors now, for the successes of managers and players – and apparently we are on some Celtic sites – then let’s give some where it’s due; we obviously owe some thanks to Dave King for the role he played in ensuring Celtic’s continued dominance. If he’s to be a hero to anyone, it should probably be to us.