On Tuesday afternoon, for reasons known only to him and his God, Donald Trump invited members of the press to film a high-stakes meeting on immigration reform between the White House and a bipartisan group of legislators. The principal takeaway for anyone who watched in awe for 60 agonizing minutes as his fellow Republicans tried gamely to capture and keep his attention is that the President of the United States, even when it comes to the issue that has defined his entire political career, has no earthly idea what he is talking about.

In a moment that was somehow at once both astonishing and entirely representative, California senator Dianne Feinstein suggested that Trump commit to passing a "clean DACA bill" immediately in exchange for a "commitment that we go into a comprehensive immigration reform" effort afterwards. Less than two weeks after declaring that he would not sign any bill to protect DACA recipients unless it also ends "chain migration" and pays for the apparently-now-taxpayer-funded wall, the president nodded sagely in response. "I have no problem... We're going to do DACA, and then we can start immediately on the phase two, which would be comprehensive," he explained. "I think a lot of people would like to see that. But we need to do DACA first."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, seated to Trump's left, scrambled to remind the president that this plan, in fact, does not resemble the one on which Trump has been insisting for weeks, and that the Republicans were demanding additional border security funding in any compromise bill, too. "I think that's what she's saying," replied Trump in a reassuring tone, despite the fact that she was saying no such thing. A cacophony of unintelligible cross-talk ensued as Republicans sought to get through to their leader before he could slap a meaty hand hand on the table and yell "DEAL." In a pitch-perfect finish to the entire exercise in absurdity, Feinstein's voice manages to rise above the din at the very end—"What do you think I'm saying?"—although, frankly, I find it impressive that she was able to restrain herself from euphorically shouting "NO TAKE BACKSIES" and then dashing out of the room.

In news that will doubtless shock you, the president's subsequent attempts to demonstrate his general knowledge of the issue and reassure Americans that he is fully in command faculties did not go well.

Whenever we get the rare glimpse of an unscripted, teleprompter-free Trump going about the task of running this country, it almost seems as if he has no fixed set of values or policy positions, and is instead a cantankerous old man, nodding along to big words he doesn't understand.