The Donald Trump campaign just can’t help itself. Throughout this election season, as an unpopular and hapless Democratic Party threatened to hand him a victory virtually by default, we’ve gotten hints that a more disciplined, politically smarter Trump might show up — only for the candidate and his allies to sabotage themselves with off-putting, oddball behavior in a fit of overconfidence.

It’s too early to say if a piece of arrogance-driven self-sabotage is what the campaign’s incendiary, racist rally at Madison Square Garden last night is going to end up being. But it certainly fits the bill.

Trump and the GOP, who are supremely confident of a big victory and already measuring the White House drapes, decided to use the major, widely covered Manhattan rally a week before voting as an opportunity to remind the country of everything people find alienating and scary about the candidate and his movement. Trump’s reported intention to strike a mood of conciliation and unity after his near death this summer — an intention that lasted roughly a single day — is long gone, as speaker after speaker, including the candidate himself, got up on stage to say unhinged, often vile things.