Dear Reader,

It’s hard to decide which public manifestation of Donald Trump’s panic and deterioration has been the most astonishing since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race two weeks ago. It’s a toss up, but I think his “interview” at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago might be the winner. From the minute Trump opened his mouth to when his own staff pulled him off stage less than an hour later – you could almost imagine the cartoon hook coming in from stage right – it was a train wreck. Actually, more like a dumpster fire going full speed on train tracks until it got hit by a meteor. It was hard not to rubberneck that one. But as horrifying and seemingly spontaneously idiotic as Trump’s performance was, it may have been more calculated and strategic than most people realize.

The part where Trump appeared to completely self-destruct (more than usual) was when ABC correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump whether he believed that Harris was a “DEI hire.” In response, Trump claimed that until only recently, Harris had embraced only her Indian heritage from her biracial background, and had downplayed her Jamaican roots. In fact, Trump claimed, he had not even realized that Harris was Black until just several years ago, when she suddenly “turned Black.” In making this claim, Trump appeared to be questioning the authenticity of Harris’ Black identity, which seems like…well, a weird and kind of dumb thing to do at a professional affinity event in front of a Black audience. (The crowd audibly gasped when Trump made this statement.)

Now, saying weird and dumb things is, at this point, par for the course for Trump. But if you’re like me, you might have been left wondering, what was the point? For one thing, the claim was not true (though lying is also par for the course so this is not surprising): Harris has always claimed and leaned into her Black identity. I mean, her big zinger against Biden in the 2020 primary debate drew on her experiences being bussed as a child to correct for racial disparities in the public schools in her area. She went to Howard University, a historically Black institution, and has been a very vocally proud member of her Black sorority, AKA. Trump’s casual and explicit racism has been well known for a while now, but one would think that, if he voluntarily showed up to an event with a Black audience, he would at the very least not want to alienate that audience for the time he was on stage.