Birther and phony candidate Donald Trump got to look presidential when The O’Reilly Factor called on him to opine on the nuclear negotiations with Iran. Or at least, Trump was given the opportunity to do so. I think even O'Reilly would have called it a foreign policy fail.

The fact that Fox News continues to treat Trump as anything more than a carnival barker should discredit them from bearing the word “news” in their name. I have yet to see any kind of explanation for Trump’s bogus birtherism that Fox relentlessly hyped nor that big birth investigation in Hawaii about which Trump said, in 2011, “I have people that have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re finding.” That’s not counting the make-believe presidential runs Fox keeps falling for.

Nevertheless, on The O’Reilly Factor last night, the network wondered, “How would the real estate mogul negotiate with the mullahs?”

Or, as host Bill O’Reilly put it, what would Secretary of State Trump do?

O’REILLY: So you’ve been harsh on President Obama and you’re a very good negotiator, so I’m gonna make you John Kerry. So we’re gonna kidnap Kerry tonight, take him out of there. Tomorrow morning, when they all get up in Switzerland, Lausanne, and they have their croissant, you’re gonna be sittin’ there. And what do you do?

“Well, I do a good job to start off with,” Trump said. “I mean he has to say immediately ‘This is what we want’ and if he doesn’t get it, he’s got to walk.”

The whole thing’s a cinch, according to Trump. “It’s not a deal that should take so long. You could do a deal in one day if they wanted to.”

Of course, any hitches are Obama’s fault. “Remember this: the Iranians and the Persians generally are great negotiators. We are terrible negotiators.” The proof? The Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap.

O’Reilly had to bring Trump back to topic. Apparently, to such a superb negotiator as Trump, such a simple thing like a nuclear deal with Iran was a bit of a bore. When asked what was wrong with our negotiating skills, Trump said, “They really don’t seem like they like Israel.”

“But that doesn’t have anything to do with Iranians,” O’Reilly objected. “I need you to be a little more incisive.”

So Trump reiterated his “walk” advice and said the U.S. should increase the sanctions against Iran, not lessen them.

Easy, peasey!

Trump also announced, “The worst thing that can happen is a bad deal is made. That’s certainly a lot better than no deal at all.”

Say what?

And in case you care, Trump is still pretending he might run. "I feel very strongly about a guy named Donald Trump," he said when asked whom he likes "so far in the Republican sweepstakes."

I suspect it was not O’Reilly but Fox producers who were so eager to hear Trump’s insights into the situation. Or maybe it was a gesture to make up for having ruffled Trump’s feathers in January by not taking his presidential candidacy seriously enough.

Whatever it was, it did nothing to shed light on the very serious situation of  our country’s negotiations with Iran.

Watch it below, from last night’s The O’Reilly Factor.