Jan 15, 2018 4 min read

“I was a good student. I understand things. I comprehend very well. OK. Better than, I think, almost anybody.”

President Donald J. Trump, during a speech on Feb. 8, 2017

The president needed to make a point.

He’d known for a couple of days that a newly published best seller had presented some serious questions about his suitability to occupy the Oval Office.

“Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House”, for some, supports the whispered Washington, D.C. rumors that Trump is either in way over his head, or, worse, on the verge of needing a straitjacket.

Michael Wolff, the book’s author, spent many hours inside of the White House, and his book, as well as his post-book-release interviews, indicate that Trump’s lack of knowledge about the policies he claims to support is troubling.

The result is an administration that’s allegedly burdened by chaos, headed by a guy who shouldn’t be heading anything beyond a line at a local supermarket.

How can that be? He once famously boasted in December 2015 that, “I went to an Ivy League school. I’m very highly educated. I know words. I have the best words.”

“Fire and Fury” takes a strikingly different view. That Trump holds meetings that hardly hold his attention.

Or, that he simply has a paper-thin understanding of highly complex issues – especially since he really doesn’t take the time to read much of anything.

Ironically, after the book was released on Jan. 5, Trump, who probably didn’t bother to read it, responded to it in a tweet the next day.

“I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that,” he bragged.

But that wasn’t enough.

He felt compelled to show-off his mental skills and stability. So, he convened a bi-partisan immigration meeting at the White House last Monday to show he’s a fully functioning president.

He probably should have stopped with that tweet.

Instead of positing proof that he’s engaged and fully conversant in matters involving legislation, he revealed his inability to do either.

Normally, those meetings are held in private, with the media getting a few opportunities to take “cover” shots of them for news stories.

Trump allowed the reporters to stay in the room for nearly an hour, because he thought it would be his opportunity to shine.

Unfortunately, he didn’t.

When veteran Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked about the possibility of passing a “clean” Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) bill (a bill that would have no other legislation attached to it) that would allow “Dreamers” to stay in the country, Trump gave his immediate approval to it.

“Yeah, I would like to do it,” Trump replied.

That answer was met with the sound of Republican jaws thudding around the room.

Within seconds, one Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, felt obliged to correct Trump, and say that no bill that would protect Dreamers would get through Congress without there being a bill that would cover border security first.

But Trump had already proven that he wasn’t – as Michael Wolff’s book had outlined – paying attention.

The outcry from right-wingers was swift.

Arch conservative Ann Coulter, for one, claimed, “I think we can call this the lowest day in the Trump presidency.”

But the day wasn’t over.

A close look at the official White House web site revealed that a transcript of the meeting “washed” Trump’s statement (“Yeah, I would like to do it”) from it.

When that fact was pointed out, the White House quickly added the missing quote.

By the end of the day, even Trump erased his original statement from his memory.

“As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval,” he tweeted.

Did he really believe he “made it very clear?”

Or did he believe we believed him?

Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.