This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 15 episode of “Alex Wagner Tonight.”

On Thursday, Donald Trump held a news conference at his New Jersey golf club. The event was somewhat of a do-over for Trump’s 90-minute rambling speech in North Carolina on Wednesday, where he was supposed to tout his economic proposals.

The campaign did its best to set the scene — laying out a spread of groceries and posters claiming to show the “Price Increases since Kamala Harris took office.”

That was the message Republicans and aides wanted Trump to stick to. Instead, what you saw was a man who is incapable and completely uninterested in staying on message. 

It was Trump being Trump. It wasn’t as much a news conference as it was a rambling stream of grievances, insults, fabrications and gibberish. And that’s pretty much all we’ve gotten from Trump over the last few weeks.

I don’t see any indication that’s going to change. The campaign is trying desperately to make him talk about the economy but Trump just can’t bring himself to do it.

It’s also worth noting that, for a guy who’s supposed to be a successful businessman, his ignorance of basic economics is kind of jaw-dropping.

I’m interested to hear, whether on the record or off the record, the reaction from Republicans. I wonder if they saw that performance Thursday and thought: What are we going to do with this guy? Do we really want to put him back in the Oval Office? Where is he taking us? 

Well, I think that’s pretty clear by now.