Forget Trump's Provocations, Focus On What He Actually Does

Yesterday’s news was dominated by Kellyanne Conway’s statement that the appointment of Mitt Romney as Secretary of State would be a betrayal of Trump voters. That was followed by Trump’s rant against the Jill Stein recount and his outrageous lie that he would have won the popular vote except for those three million illegals who voted for Clinton. This is typical Trump. He is a narcissistic and abusive bully who knows how to play the media like a fiddle. Besides feeding his insatiable ego, Trump’s outrageous and inexcusable statements are often used to deflect the media from other issues, something he successfully and continually did during the campaign.

Last week, Beppe Severgnini, an Italian journalist, was on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC discussing the similarities between Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi. One important point that he made was that the behavior is sometimes so inappropriate that our own modesty, for lack of a better word, forces us to downplay the abusive behavior and his perfect example of that was the difficulty the media had with Trump’s “pussy” comment. It is important that we not allow that to happen. An equally important point he made was that the opposition in Italy continually overreacted to what Berlusconi said or his inexcusable, inappropriate behavior. And because of that, not only did people somewhat sympathize with Berlusconi but, because of their obsession with Berlusconi, the opposition never put together a proper policy alternative with which to confront him. His advice was to not to focus on what Trump says, although it will be important to point out his continual lies, but rather keep your eye on exactly what he does.

The media will of course be the most obsessive about Trump’s provocations. And, like yesterday, it will be key for all of us to force them to provide the proper context. Initial media reports were virtually stenographic saying that “Trump claims millions voted illegally”. After outrage from the blogosphere, today’s headlines at least state that Trump’s claims were false or baseless, although they somehow could not bring themselves to use the appropriate word, “lie”. More likely, all this weekend was diversion from the Stein recount or some overseas deal that Trump made that has only showed up in the overseas press somewhere.

But, as Severignini said, it is important for Democrats not to get caught up in every Trump provocation and focus on what Trump actually does. The appointments of Bannon, Sessions, and Flynn are far more important than ranting about Conway’s diss of Mitt Romney. The fact that Betsy Devos is Secretary of Education, a woman whose polices have failed students in Detroit, Louisiana, and Ohio, is far more important than Trump’s lies about the popular vote.

Bernie Sanders tried to do this on a related subject on CNN’s “State of the Union” yesterday when he finally had enough of Dana Bash continually pressing him on the Stein recount. Having already stated that Stein was entirely within her rights to demand the recount, Bernie eventually exclaimed, “Dana, this is exactly the issue. Nobody cares!” And he’s right. What we should care about is what Trump does and will do. There have been plenty of rules about how to deal with life under Trump, but doing our best to not overreact to what he says and focus on the terrible things he does and will do is far more important.