President Donald Trump intended a White House meeting with congressional leaders from both parties to be an opportunity to confront the bipartisan opposition to his decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria. But it quickly descended into political theater as Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suddenly stood up and left the meeting.

Rushing to the media like a bunch of schoolyard children running to the nearest teacher to tattle on a particularly disliked peer, Pelosi and company huffed that Trump had a “meltdown.” They further claimed that Trump had called Pelosi “a third-rate politician” — or was it “a third-grade politician”? They weren’t sure. But Pelosi was sure that Trump was so unhinged that she patronizingly announced, “I pray for the president all the time. … Now we have to pray for his health — because this was a very serious meltdown on the part of the president.”

Democrats claimed that Trump was so disrespectful that they couldn’t take it anymore and left. The White House, on the other hand, found Democrat behavior “baffling, but not surprising.” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham nailed it: “[Pelosi] had no intention of listening or contributing to an important meeting on national security issues. While Democratic leadership chose to storm out and get in front of the cameras to whine, everyone else in the meeting chose to stay in the room and work on behalf of this country.”

This is orchestrated political theater by the Democrats. It’s designed to take advantage of a rather unique situation in Trump’s presidency: Solid majorities in both parties stand in opposition to his decision regarding Syria. Thus far, Trump has failed to articulate a winsome argument for his decision, and the opposition has clearly frustrated him. Pelosi and company decided to take advantage and play up their “Trump is crazy and not fit for office” mantra in an effort to bolster their devious not-yet-voted-on “impeached inquiry.” It’s all a game of political optics, never mind what the truth is. The swamp runs deep in Washington.