'The scale of delusion is startling': Conservative says Trump's belief that he'll be reinstated is real -- and worse than you think

Writing in the National Review this Thursday, Charles Cooke contends that a recent New York Times report that says Donald Trump "has been telling a number of people he's in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August" is true.

Cooke's op-ed in the historically conservative outlet states that the right-wing pushback calling the report "fake news" is misguided, adding that the Times' Maggie Haberman's reporting was "correct."

"I can attest, from speaking to an array of different sources, that Donald Trump does indeed believe quite genuinely that he — along with former senators David Perdue and Martha McSally — will be 'reinstated' to office this summer after 'audits' of the 2020 elections in Arizona, Georgia, and a handful of other states have been completed," Cooke writes, adding that Trump is trying journalists, politicians, and others to promulgate this belief.

"The scale of Trump's delusion is quite startling," Cooke writes. "This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of the facts or an interesting foible, nor is it an irrelevant example of anguished post-presidency chatter. It is a rejection of reality, a rejection of law, and, ultimately, a rejection of the entire system of American government."

Read the full op-ed over at the National Review.