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The only African American Republican in the U.S. Senate was brought to the White House on Wednesday to give Donald Trump a lesson, explaining to the ignorant president something any leader should know – that America has a dark past when it comes to racial issues.

According to The New York Times, GOP Sen. Tim Scott met with Trump in the Oval Office to deliver a “pointed lecture” to the president about racism and his disturbing response to the Charlotteville terrorism last month.

More from the report:

Tim Scott, the lone black Republican in the Senate, delivered a pointed lecture on America’s 300-year legacy of racism to President Trump on Wednesday in response to what he called Mr. Trump’s “sterile” response to the riots in Charlottesville, Va., last month. The president invited Mr. Scott, a conservative from South Carolina who had expressed disgust with Mr. Trump’s equivocal reaction to the white supremacist protests that left one woman dead, to the Oval Office for what Mr. Trump’s staff described as a demonstration of the president’s commitment to “positive race relations.” When a reporter asked the senator if the president had expressed regret, a pained look flashed on Mr. Scott’s face. He paused for a few seconds and replied, “He certainly tried to explain what he was trying to convey.” Soon after the meeting ended, White House officials emailed reporters a photograph of Mr. Trump listening intently as Mr. Scott made a point, with both sitting in chairs often used for bilateral meetings with foreign leaders. The White House misidentified him as Tom Scott.

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Trump’s effort to move past his despicable Charlottesville response by inviting the only black Senator into the Oval Office backfired horribly and was nothing more than a photo-op for the president.

As the report indicates, Trump didn’t appear to have any interest in changing his mind about what he expressed in the wake of Charlottesville. Instead, the president – who built a campaign and won the presidency in large part because of his skill stirring up racial resentment – tried to defend his post-Charlottesville ignorance.

He couldn’t even pretend to act apologetic in a private meeting with the nation’s only African American senator; he doubled down.

This meeting could have given Trump an opportunity to learn something about race relations in America – a subject he seems to know very little about –but the president only made things worse.