"... in the eyes of his followers."
Trump's cult followers believe anything that comes out of his mouth no matter how absurd or vile. They have already bought the nonsense hook line and sinker that anything they don't want to believe is fake news. Or anything they do want to believe is true. They don't need any more "credibility" on that front.
The non-MAGA world (center, left and right) needs to make sure we don't fall into that delusion.