(CNN) Donald Trump used his first televised Oval Office address to look the American people in the eye and do what he had done more than 7,000 times in less than two years: lie, distort and deflect. It was the performance we all should have expected based on his false premise that a security emergency exists on the border with Mexico.

Trump's specific distortions included the false claim that Democrats "will not fund border security" and that a border wall, of the sort he promised to build, "will quickly pay for itself." Presumably these statements were made to divert attention from the fact that Democrats want to debate the approach to security, not the need for it. The idea that the wall will pay for itself is a fantasy meant to replace his oft stated campaign promise that Mexico would finance the construction.

He also blamed Democrats for a government shutdown he agreed he would "own" during a televised meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

The worst of Trump's all-too-predictable talk involved his description of undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes, which he offered to gin up fear about the nonexistent crisis. He failed to mention the two asylum-seeking children who died in his administration's custody last month, and then Trump had the nerve to speak of the nation's heart and soul.

As always, it seems the big takeaway from this Trump speech is the one that he has offered us many times before: As President, he has too little respect for the office he holds, the people he serves, and the tradition of Oval Office broadcasts.