President Trump gave a strong interview on "Face the Nation."

Here's the video and transcript. I'll just highlight the way he handled the challenges about race. The interviewer, Margaret Brennan, tries 3 times to get him to speak in terms of whether he is "sensitive," and he never takes that bait. His strategy is to respond to questions by immediately forefronting something he has accomplished:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Talking about the- the kneeling position you've taken and the controversy around it. Do you think that the players who did kneel had a point? I mean did you- are you sensitive at all to players like Colin Kaepernick, who- who point out that the majority of victims of police violence are black?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, you know, I'm the one that had passed judicial reform. And if you look at what I did, criminal judicial reform, and what I've done- President Obama tried. They all tried. Everybody wanted to do it. And I got it done and I've been, you know, really- a lot of people in the NFL have been calling and thanking me for it.... They have been calling and thanking, you know, that people have been trying to get that taken care of and it's now signed into law and affects tremendous numbers of people, and very good people. I think that when you want to protest I think that's great. But I don't think you do it at the sake of our flag, at the sake of our national anthem. Absolutely.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But you are- do I understand you saying there though, that you still are sensitive though? I mean you- you understand the motivation for the protest ...  though you don't like the form of it.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: A lot of it is having to do with reform from what I understand. Whether it's criminal justice or whatever it may be and they have different versions and everybody seemed to have a different version of it. But a lot of it had to do with that, and I took care of that. I think that people have to, at all times, respect our flag and at all times respect our net- our- our national anthem and our country. And I think there are plenty of places and times you can protest and you can do a lot. But you can't do that. That's my opinion.

MARGARET BRENNAN: In a CBS poll we just took, 63 percent of Americans say they disapprove about how you're handling issues of race in the US.... What do you think of that?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: What has happened is very interesting. The economy is so good right now. You saw the jobs report just came out. Three hundred and four thousand added jobs, which is a shocker, for the month. A shocker to a lot of people. They thought it was going to be half that number. The African-Americans have the best employment numbers in the history of our country. Hispanic Americans have the best employment numbers in the history of our country. Asian-Americans the best in the history of our country. You look at women, the best in 61 years. And our employment numbers are phenomenal, the best in over 50 years. So I think I've been given a lot of credit for that. And in terms of race, a lot of people are saying well this is something very special what's happening.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So- because when colleagues of yours, even like Republican Senator Tim Scott. He said Donald Trump is not racist. But he said you're racially insensitive.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I have a great relationship with Tim and certainly with his state, South Carolina, and- where we do very well. And I think if you look at the numbers for African-American unemployment, best numbers they've had- literally the best numbers they've had in history. And I think they like me a lot and I like them a lot. 

Brennan doesn't use the word "sensitive" elsewhere in her long interview, which covers many topics. It makes me think about how much of racial politics is a display of sensitivity — the theater of looking like you care. Trump turned down the triple invitation to sell himself as sensitive, and that underscored what he did say: What counts is what you do. Brennan did not challenge his claims of accomplishment. Was she not prepared for his solidly on-track talk about results? If he'd caved and said I really do care, I'm a sensitive guy, would she have flung a bunch of his old insensitivities at him? Perhaps Brennan was prepared for that. The way Trump handled the race issue made Brennan look weak. It felt like she was taunting him for being generally insensitive to black people, trying to get a rise out of him. But time and again, he didn't get mad — he talked very positively about the things he is actually doing. That's very effective!