Trump made another self-incriminating statement -- Jim Acosta predicts how he'll try to weasel out of it

Former President Donald Trump's well-established habit of calling for wrongdoing and then claiming he was joking has become such a trope that CNN's Jim Acosta came close to giving a preemptive fact-check of an assumed future lie on Tuesday.

Acosta's analysis came after Trump called upon Vladimir Putin to release dirt on President Joe Biden.

The former president's comments came the same day a Russian state TV host called for regime change in America to "help our partner Trump."

CNN's Acosta expected Trump to eventually lie about his request for a foreign government to interfere in American domestic politics.

"Don’t be surprised if Trump later lies and says he was joking about asking Putin for dirt on Biden. He’s lied that he was joking when he asked Russia for Hillary Clinton’s emails," Acosta noted.

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Acosta also linked to a 2020 Vox analysis written by Aaron Rupar.

"Trump accused reporters this weekend of mischaracterizing comments he made in July 2016 publicly encouraging Russian hackers to attack Hillary Clinton. But the way he described those comments is completely at odds with reality, and there’s video to prove it," Rupar noted. "Trump has made clear in the years since that he doesn’t think foreign interference in American elections is a bad thing, insofar as it helps him. In October 2019, Trump flatly told reporters that he thought the Chinese and Ukrainian governments “should investigate the Bidens.” Those comments were widely condemned but were defended as just a joke by Republican members of Congress like Kevin McCarthy and Roy Blunt, even though footage of the comment showed Trump was serious."