RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.: What is Trump’s biggest problem? Trump, of course.

We’ve observed the patient for years. It’s time for a diagnosis, America. What exactly is wrong with Donald Trump?

The former president’s racially charged attack on Vice President Kamala Harris last week at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists revealed the answer.

Trump’s life experience has been so narrow, and so many of his waking thoughts are directed inward, that he doesn’t have the foggiest idea how to relate to anyone different from himself. He’s not the least bit curious about people. If you don’t share his ZIP code, his generation or his skin color, Trump’s not interested in what you’ve been through or how you see the world.

Naturally, when talking about Harris behind her back, Trump was combative, offensive and condescending. What he said was insulting and inappropriate. None of this should surprise us. That’s how the real estate mogul relates to Black people — and immigrants, women, Hispanics, the physically challenged, the LGBTQ+ community, etc. If you’re already on the margins, Trump will further marginalize you.

The very idea of an organization of Black journalists — a cohort predisposed to support Democrats and oppose Republicans — inviting Trump to speak was controversial. In fact, it split the organization. Some of the journalists boycotted the speech. At least one of the group’s leaders — Karen Attiah, a Washington Post columnist and co-chair of the convention — resigned her position after it was announced that Trump would speak. The NABJ members who stuck around to hear the former president interviewed by three Black female journalists heard a symphony of lies, victimhood and subtle (and not so subtle) racism.

Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, asked Trump: “Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a Black woman?”

Trump’s response prompted gasps from the audience, but also a share of laughter.

“Well, I can say, no, I think maybe it’s a little bit different,” he said. “I’ve known her a long time indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage. And she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. And now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black? I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t. Because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, she became a Black person.”

Oh no, he did not just say that! Oh yes, of course he did. That’s Trump. As the Archie Bunker of Palm Beach, that’s how he rolls.

Besides showing off his white male privilege (a nifty commodity that lets one opine freely on issues with which one has no firsthand experience, from abortion to affirmative action), Trump appeared to be trying to accomplish a few things with his remarks.

To drive a wedge between the Black journalists and a Black woman running for president. To raise doubts about Harris’s multicultural background, as the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India. To exploit the ambivalence that some Black Americans feel about Harris, as a politician who some accuse of leaning into her background on the campaign trail but who launched her political career in California as a hard-nosed prosecutor who contributed to a criminal justice system that has too often failed Black people.

Lastly, all that said, this was never about Trump speaking to Black folks. It was about Trump sending a message to white folks: Even when I am unfairly persecuted by mean people who look nothing like you or me, I will bravely fight back — for me, and for you.

Ah yes, playing the victim. That, too, is vintage Trump.

After Trump spoke, Attiah sent out a message on the social media platform, X: “I am so angry right now. N.A.B.J., this was a colossal mistake.”

Maybe. It’s certainly true that comments such as these should have no place in politics. But as far as the Harris campaign is concerned, it was a gift, and a generous one at that. Because it allowed America to once again see Trump for who, and what, he is.

Given Harris’s shortcomings, I’m still not sure she can beat Trump. But, after this latest broadside, I am more convinced than ever that Trump can beat Trump.

Ruben Navarrette’s email address is crimscribe@icloud.com. His podcast, “Ruben in the Center,” is available through every podcast app.