learning curve

“[...] in this administration, the learning curve is a right angle.”

quoted from: The Los Angeles Times

Now I’m wondering what the author of that article means. Does he really want to say that the learning curve of the present administration rises at right angles? That would be really something, wouldn’t it? Or does he want to say it resembles a wall? Shouldn’t a flat line show better what the author wants to express. Or am I that wrong in my knowledge of geometry?