Good enunciation is a prerequisite to the presidency. No one told this to Donald Trump.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump appeared to welcome a renewal of diplomatic relations with North Korea, going so far as to brag that “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.” But on Sunday, the White House accused the second largest paper of record of misquoting the president to generate a story.

Trump didn’t say he had a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, the White House argued. What Trump really said was that he probably would have a very good relationship with the pudgy little madman if given the opportunity. Maybe after some golf, perhaps after a couple pieces of beautiful chocolate cake, and possibly after a really productive sit-down, the two could become fast friends. But right now, Trump and Kim definitely do not have “a very good relationship.”

It was just a misunderstanding, a classic mix-up between a simple declarative and a subjunctive counterfactual conditional verb, with the fate of the Korean Peninsula hanging in the balance. It was also pathetic. Words matter and they especially matter when they come from the mouth of a president with a habit of making up U.S. foreign policy on the fly.

Less than 24-hours after Hawaii ducked and covered in fear of a ballistic missile that never came, the president went to war with the Wall Street Journal. He released his audio of the interview.

And then they released theirs, along with a transcript.

Listen to both side by side and be the judge. Then take a look at the transcript and notice two things.

First, when the Wall Street Journal asked the leader of the free world to comment on his relationship with the brutal dictator, Trump demurs: “I don’t want to comment on it…I don’t want to comment, I’m not saying I have or I haven’t.”

Second, when the Wall Street Journal asked about his repeated attacks of the little rocket man, Trump hedges: “Sure, you see that a lot with me and then all of a sudden somebody’s my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You give me 30. I’m a very flexible person.”

These aren’t the statements of a president with a firm grasp of strategy. And that’s unfortunate. Until this point, Trump has done a better job handling the North Korean threat than either of his two predecessors. But attacking journalists won’t restore the U.S. to a better security footing, and it certainly won’t make the nation any safer. Reiterating earlier policy and speaking more clearly would.