Donald Trump just made a deranged fool of himself during public appearance with military hero dog Conan

Weeks ago, Donald Trump posted a very poorly photoshopped image of himself placing a medal around the neck of Conan, the dog who was injured during the Al-Baghdadi raid. If Trump was trying to trick the public into believing that the photo was real, no one bought it. Now the notoriously animal-hating Trump is holding an actual photo op with the dog today, and suffice it to say that he’d have done well to stick with photoshop.

Donald Trump, Melania Trump, and Mike Pence all appeared with Conan the hero dog today in front of the cameras. All three looked visibly uncomfortable. Donald and Pence took turns putting in a minimal effort at petting the dog, while Melania seemed to make a point of keeping her distance. The whole thing was pointless to begin with. Then Donald opened his mouth and made it much worse.

Here’s what Donald Trump said about the dog: “We were going to put a muzzle on the dog, and I thought that was a good idea. But then it gets even more violent.” Wait, what? Was this supposed to be a lame attempt at a joke? Was Trump giving away that he actually feared the dog?

Perhaps Donald Trump doesn’t understand that even though Conan is a military trained dog, she’s not going to just attack indiscriminately. In fact she’s trained to only attack the enemy, on command, and represents zero threat to any bystander. Then again, maybe Trump just gave away that, because he’s an avowed enemy of the United States, he’s afraid the dog really might attack him.