Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director, had a few questions for former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. But one of Scaramucci’s questions in the video below gave Kelly pause. Plenty of pause and perhaps a bit of befuddlement as well.

Scaramucci was interviewing Kelly as part of the SALT Talks, a global leadership forum, and at one point he asked Kelly if he thought former Secretary of Defense James Mattis was overrated. Kelly, according to Mediaite, responded “Jim Mattis overrated? No. He’s not overrated.”

So then Scaramucci decided to drop this question:

“What if I asked you this,” he said. “Forgive me, I gotta ask it again. Is the president a ‘stable genius’ or is he a ‘very stable genius?'”

And that’s when Kelly grew very thoughtful, obviously trying to find the right words to carefully avoid commenting on Trump’s intelligence (or lack thereof).

“What’s a genius,” he said, then smiled and laughed after several seconds. “I don’t know what that is.”

“As I say, when I was there working the staff process, more often than not he didn’t like the recommendations,” he added. “More often than not he followed the recommendations. But I don’t think I should comment on… I’m not qualified to comment on stable or unstable.”

But Trump sure likes to brag about being a “stable genius,” trotting that out regularly on Twitter. Like that time he commented on his appearance at a NATO conference in early 2018.

….to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018

I can’t help but think Kelly doesn’t miss his former job. Who could blame him?