Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is, allegedly, one of the grownups in the administration. He also plainly doesn’t know what the hell he is doing, is gleefully sabotaged by Donald Trump at every turn, is handcuffed by a White House incapable of filling staff positions, and has been rendered largely impotent in international relations due to his inability to translate his boss’ ridiculous temper tantrums into a foreign policy that any of his international contemporaries can understand enough to even take seriously.

Let’s check in with him on the administration’s escalating battle with North Korea.

“We’re not using a carrot to convince them to talk,” Tillerson said of North Korea. “We’re using large sticks. And that is what they need to understand.”

“I’m going to use all the time available to me our diplomatic efforts will continue until that first bomb drops,” Tillerson said. “We don’t know precisely how much time is left on the clock.”

The first part manages to channel Trump’s asinine bluster quite admirably; you can’t say the man isn’t settling into his new, if humiliating, life as Trump’s begrudging underling.

But the second part? The second part is … alarming.