Donald Trump’s public remarks invariably meander in a variety of directions, and his Women’s History Month event at the White House was no exception. But while much of the president’s rhetoric was forgettable, he took some time to address one of his most important failures — which he pretended was one of his impressive accomplishments.

“Since I took office, we created more than 300 — hang on, listen to this — 300,000 jobs now filled by proud, hardworking American women,” the president said, appearing to slur his words a bit mid-sentence. “It’s a record.”

Soon after, he went on to say, “Jobs are coming in through the roof, and we have factories being built all over the country. … We’ve taken in $18 trillion-plus in 11 months.”

For now, let’s not dwell too long on Trump’s claim about $18 trillion in foreign investments, which is entirely made up and at odds with assessments from his own White House. We can also brush past the president’s claims about factories, which aren’t true, either.

What struck me, however, was the president’s lack of awareness about just how awful his record on job creation is.

Common sense suggests Trump would just avoid the subject altogether and hope the public focuses its attention elsewhere. But the president keeps pressing his luck by emphasizing the issue and making up specific claims that are easy to fact-check.

Is it true, for example, that his administration has created 300,000 jobs? No, that’s not even close to being correct: As we learned earlier this month, the U.S. economy actually lost 90,000 jobs in February, and looking back over the 14 months of Trump’s second term, the cumulative total was 150,000 jobs. (In contrast, in the final 14 months of Joe Biden’s presidency, the American economy added 1.74 million jobs.)

In other words, the president took the actual number, doubled it and then boasted at a Women’s History Month event about setting “a record” (and that’s without getting into his suggestion that all of those jobs were filled by women).

If the White House wants to argue that economic conditions will improve, it’s welcome to try. If it wants to make excuses for Trump generating the worst job numbers since the Great Recession, I’ll gladly consider the claims.

But the president’s response to his failure has been to play make-believe, all while generating fresh attention to an issue that should be among his greatest embarrassments.