Former President Donald Trump’s volume slowly but surely rose during the first hour of Tuesday’s debate. He started out relatively calm, but when Vice President Kamala Harris grilled him about his rallies, his world standing and his legal troubles, he eventually exploded.

There was no sign of him calming down as the debate reached its final sprint. As a result, his answers began to unravel and descend into the same rambling, incoherent ranting that Harris invited the public to witness at his rallies.

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To the Democratic nominee’s credit, her team has been telling the press for days that her strategy was to push Trump’s buttons so hard that he loses focus. That’s exactly what we saw during the debate, as she maintained her composure — the stray grin or bewildered expression aside — and stuck to her talking points and remarks. Harris, on the other hand, brushed off all of the Republican nominee’s attacks, allowing him to growl at her and the moderators even louder.

It’s also exactly the scenario his advisers were reportedly worried about, with their boss appearing angry and fuming versus the hope that, against all odds, he would actually address Harris’ policies. Even when he tried to do that on Tuesday, there was simply no way to follow his train of thought because he had no through line to address her.

Harris called him “weak and wrong on national security,” and blasted the countless people who worked for him and supported her in his face. And as I’ve written before, even with his microphone muted when it wasn’t his turn, there was no shortage of wild things coming out of his microphone when it was his turn to speak.

This was probably the worst performance Trump could have delivered for someone who is still not sure he has the courage to return to the White House.