President Donald Trump seemed confounded Wednesday night as he attempted to explain that an earlier meltdown was not, as Nancy Pelosi called it, a “tantrum.” “I was purposely very polite and calm,” he said of his decision to storm out of a meeting with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, “much as I was minutes later with the press in the Rose Garden.”

“It is all such a lie!” he continued, as polite and calm people do.

No doubt Trump was already fuming on Wednesday when he arrived for a planned meeting to discuss infrastructure spending with the two top Democrats. Pelosi had just accused the president of potentially “impeachable” conduct in obstructing various investigations into him and his administration—likely with the goal of getting under his skin. Trump, predictably, was incensed, walked out of the meeting after just three minutes, and headed out to the Rose Garden against the advice of aides, where he raged over the probes. “I don’t do cover-ups,” he said, apparently in such a state of fury that he required notes to remember the talking points he’s been beating into the ground for two years now.

Pelosi, who seems to enjoy getting a rise out of the president, continued to ridicule him, wondering aloud to reporters if Trump’s unwillingness to work with Democrats unless they stop investigating him stemmed from “a lack of confidence on his part,” and saying that she would “pray” for him. “He had a temper tantrum for us all to see,” she said in a letter to House colleagues later. Trump, seemingly aware that he had once again been made to look like a fool by the House Speaker, challenged her version of events. “This is not true,” he said, like a guy at the bar insisting through hiccups that he’s not drunk.

Trump, of course, has been having a pretty bad week, what with Deutsche Bank facing a subpoena for his financial records, his accountants turning over documents Congress, and New York likely to obtain his tax returns. While Pelosi has so far stood firm in opposition to impeaching the president, some on her side of the aisle are growing impatient. The more Democrats widen their dragnet, the more likely an impeachment inquiry becomes. That Pelosi herself used the I-word on Wednesday, albeit in a noncommittal way, likely got Trump sweating.

The president may be making things worse for himself by pledging not to work with Democrats unless they stop investigating him. It’s a bad look, politically, and it gives Pelosi a compelling talking point. It may also force her hand. Pelosi has sought to focus impeachment-hungry Democrats on her party’s legislative agenda. But if Trump insists that the government is only going to “go down one track at a time,” he’ll be putting front-and-center a number of investigations that the House Speaker would be happy to have play out in the background.

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