President Trump would like to imagine he’s the second coming of Theodore Roosevelt, the early-20^th-century champion of national parks, national forests, and national monuments. It’s obviously just another one of Trump’s many delusions, a fact that was made face-palm apparent this week after he couldn’t even pronounce the name of one of America’s most famous national parks—demonstrating zero familiarity with the country’s public lands. 

On Tuesday, the White House tried to make a big deal out of the signing of the Great American Outdoors Act, a bipartisan public lands bill that will permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The choreographed ceremony in the East Room was supposed to display Republicans’ supposed passion for conservation. But Trump flubbed it. He not only garbled the pronunciation of Yosemite but also acknowledged that Republicans don’t have a great reputation when it comes to environmental protection—and, in the process, revealed the whole show for the cynically partisan event it was. 

No White House event these days is complete without its share of Trump’s hollow braggadocio and, on cue, he sought to claim Roosevelt’s mantle: "This is a very big deal from an environment standpoint and from the beauty of our country standpoint," Trump said. "There hasn't been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect."

Yet when it came time to celebrate the country’s “windswept prairies” and “towering mountains,” Trump twice bungled the name of one of the United States’ most famed public parks. “When they gaze upon Yo-Semite’s, Yo-Semite’s towering sequoias, their love of country grows stronger,” Trump stuttered as he robotically read from a script. 

The correct pronunciation is, of course, “yoh-SEM-i-tee.” Instead, Trump made the awe-inspiring gorge in California’s Sierra Nevada sound like some sort of Jewish hip-hop group, sparking a wave of internet ridicule. Roosevelt famously ditched his Secret Service detail to spend a frosty night camping under those towering sequoias; Trump couldn’t even figure out what the place is called. 

The wannabe Rough Rider’s slip of the tongue was probably little more than the latest evidence of his borderline dementia (have you seen the Axios interview?). The president’s more revealing slip came as he admitted that the GOP isn’t viewed as the party of environmental protection. Trump is, famously, a narcissist. Often, though, things get most interesting when his superego lets in a glimmer of self-awareness. “People don't necessarily associate us [Republicans] with that [land and water conservation], but I think they probably will have to start at some point," Trump said, in an apparently uncalculated admission of the public’s dim view of the GOP’s environmental record. "They'll have to start thinking about the Republican Party and all of the incredible things we've done on conservation.” 

Americans have good reason for not associating the Republican Party—and, especially, the Trump administration—with conservation and environmental protection. Just last week, Trump’s Fish and Wildlife Service moved forward a proposal to define how the word “habitat” is used in listing wildlife under the Endangered Species Act, a move that, environmental groups warn, is a way of reducing the number of ESA listings. Last month, the Trump administration initiated a process to curtail the National Environmental Policy Act. Trump announced the attack on NEPA, a bedrock environmental law, with unrestrained glee. "I've been wanting to do this from day one,” he said during a July 15 speech. 

Trump has also sought to water down the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, and weaken pollution standards for cars and trucks. Research conducted by the Center for American Progress shows that the Trump administration has sought to remove protections from nearly 35 million acres of public lands, making him, in the center’s words, “the most anti-nature president in US history.” 

Even Trump’s outdoorsy son—the trophy-hunting Donald Trump Jr.—has doubts about his dad’s scorched-earth policies. On Tuesday, as Trump senior stumbled over Yo-Semite, Don Junior took to Twitter to declare that building a massive gold mine on the edge of one of the richest salmon fisheries in Alaska isn’t a good idea, even though his old man has supported the mine throughout his presidency. 

The greenlighting of the Great America Outdoors Act by Trump and his chief enabler, the Grand Inquisitor–like Senator Mitch McConnell, is just a form of gaslighting—an attempt to distract from the rest of the administration’s ghastly environmental record. For Trump and McConnell, the passage of the act was mostly a cynical political play designed to bolster two embattled Western senators—Steve Daines of Montana and Colorado’s Cory Gardner—who are facing tough reelection fights. Both Daines and Gardner have lousy environmental records (Daines has a 6 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, while Gardner has a measly 11 percent from LCV), and they are each desperate to burnish their environmental bona fides to appeal to outdoors-minded voters. 

Trump, in another unguarded moment, discussed how desperate the senators were to make the bill happen. "I can just say, as a side note, they would call me all the time," Trump said of Gardner and Daines, "and I would say, 'Would you guys stop calling me so much?' They wanted to get it done."

The bald partisanship of the White House affair was also made clear by the guest list: Even though the act passed with sweeping bipartisan majorities of 73-25 in the Senate and 310-107 in the House, not a single Democrat was invited to the ceremony. 

Yet bad intentions can, sometimes, lead to virtuous ends. The passage of the Great American Outdoors Act is a clear victory for public lands conservation and national park maintenance. And it’s also a testament to the public’s enduring enthusiasm for conservation. The act passed thanks to Americans’ bedrock-strong passion for protecting this country’s wildlands. As Senator Tom Udall (a true public lands champion) said in a statement Tuesday, “It was only possible because of overwhelming public support for conservation and years of dedication from a tireless coalition of conservation champions, sportsmen, community leaders, Native leaders, and their allies in Congress. So we should celebrate today for the grassroots win that it is.”

Don’t be fooled by this week’s spectacle at the White House. The Great American Outdoors Act isn’t Trump’s accomplishment. After all, you can’t be a conservation hero if you don’t even know how to say Yosemite.