ABC White House reporter Jonathan Karl asked Donald Trump a simple question during a pool spray earlier Wednesday: "Why not sign the other appropriations bills so some of these workers can get paid?"

Apparently it was Karl's day in the Trump wind chamber. Instead of answering the question, Bully-Boy countered with one of his own: "Do you think I should do that?"

This, of course, is a question no reporter is going to answer because reporters aren't supposed to have opinions about things like that. But they're still human, and they still feel for others, and the question was one a LOT of people are asking, given that his signature on those bills would mean 800,000 workers and their families could receive paychecks and maybe not have their credit rating destroyed as a New Year's gift.

Karl rightly demurred, telling Trump it wasn't for him to say one way or the other.

"I watch your one-sided reporting," Trump growled. "Seriously, Jon, do you think i should just sign?"

"Tell me, tell me. Jon, do you think i should just sign?" Trump badgered and bullied.

Karl repeated his original premise: "I'm saying that if you sign that, these workers can start getting paid, the government can start --"

"You would do that if you were in my position, you'd do that?" Trump interrupted, raising his voice.

Karl repeated, "I'm not in your position. I'm asking you --"

Again interrupting, Trump bullied: "I'm asking you, would you do that if you were in my position? Because if you would do that, you should never be in this position. Because you'd never get anything done."

And with that, he angrily dismissed everyone. And make no mistake, he was angry. He quite nearly lost it over that question because he knows he is responsible for causing a lot of people a lot of pain and while he doesn't care, he doesn't want to own the political price for it.

So that was special, for sure. But what made it super-special, just absolutely rockin' best special was Mrs. Greenspan's grinny giggle when they (finally) cut back to her.

After giggling, Mrs. Greenspan mustered some sarcasm through the laughter, while calling down White House Stenographer Kristen Welker for some repetition of messages none of us need to hear again.

Through her giggles, Mitchell asked, "Would you sign the other appropriation bills? Reopen the government, let hundreds of thousands of people get paid, be able to pay their bills, and then negotiate on Homeland Security the way any other chief executive might do? That was pretty amazing."

Actually, it was pretty offensive, and so was the laughter. For those people not getting paychecks at the end of this week, the entire exchange had to be particularly galling, right down to Trump mocking a reporter for daring to ask and a reporter laughing at the entire exchange.

Maybe, just maybe, someone could take this all seriously?