Don't Chase the Laser Pointer

Or, How to Stay Sane during Trump 2.0

It’s twelve days until the beginning of Trump’s second term. I’ve been thinking a lot about my news consumption and the related emotional well-being as things get underway.

I’ve decided to stay away from op-eds that work through “what if” scenarios or fantasize about what Trump’s intentions are. I’m skipping analysis stories that report on what various talking heads say about the administration.

One of Trump’s most successful political strategies has been to keep himself at the center of the news cycle. From 2015 to 2021 this was done on then-Twitter. Since 2021 it has happened on his Truth Social site. Even though most people don’t follow him on TS, the print media, broadcast media, and social media repeat his “Truths” and proceed to treat them seriously.

We have to stop doing that. We are less likely to make sense of the latest Truth or Mar-a-Lago press gaggle than that cat is to catch the laser dot once and for all.

The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last argued the same point back in late November.

That’s Trump’s secret sauce: The fact that his voters are never let down. No matter how little he actually does for them, no matter how many promises he breaks or fails to deliver, then never feel betrayed by him.

How do we break this cycle? We need a paradigm shift in how we approach Trump:

Stop freaking out about things Trump says he’s going to do. And start demanding that he actually go through with them.

The press — and the rest of us by default — fail to grasp this lesson and treat all statements as actual policies. Even the policies that were proposed during the campaign seem to be constantly shifting. Just this week, administration sources told the Washington Post that Trump was going to scale back his massive tariff plans. Trump immediately countered that these sources were made up and nothing had changed.

Yesterday, Trump held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. He opened with a normal (for him) rambling monologue ranging from someone investing in luxury properties (in “a short period of time” with $20 Billion “or double or more”) to Afghanistan to off-shore drilling to weaponization of justice.

Frankly, there’s nothing in that monologue that can be taken at face value. He may or may not follow through. His figures may be wrong (like talking about “acres of ocean”) or just hopeful (“getting environmental approvals done in one week”).

The first question he was asked as predictable as the cat chasing the laser pointer: “Mr. President, thank you. I wanted to touch on the world on fire that you mentioned, but let's start if we could with your references to Greenland and the Panama Canal and so forth. Can you assure the world that, as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion?”

Trump naturally says no. In part, he does so to hedge his options.¹ If he says he would absolutely rule it out, and something awful happened, he’d want to have choices.

But the truth is that he doesn’t have a plan. He may or nor be serious about wanting these lands. But the real questions deals with existing treaties and national sovereignty. When you ask the question based on what he’d said on TS or Junior’s latest travels, you miss the actual operation of government.

Another question: Will he pardon Jan 6 protestors who harmed police officers? He didn’t answer, instead going on a rant about the FBI, Smith, Comey, the raid, and the pipe bomber. There was no follow up question.

So none of this matters. It’s just laser pointers with a room full of cats.

When then do we engage? First, we need to wait until January 20th when he is actually the president. Second, while he will offer a host of executive orders in the first few days, most will fall well short of implementation.²

The way to not act like cats is to focus on a couple of key issues. For example, how will the plans for mass deportation unfold? Yesterday the House passed a bill calling for the deportation of undocumented immigrants who had been convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. It stands a good chance of passing the Senate. What will that implementation look like, who would be affected, and what’s the margin for error?

Or take the tariffs as an example. Most economists agree that widespread tariffs will raise prices for consumers and trigger retaliatory actions by other countries. This is an important matter and its worth focusing on the details of actual proposed actions instead of being distracted by references to 100% or 200% or 500% tariff threats. But until there is a plan, we can’t react. So we shouldn’t.

You may have your own particular issues to focus on depending on your own interests. That’s great. Learn the details of what would be part of proposals as they develop and avoid focusing on Truths or comments by politicians or op-eds.

If we can do that, maybe we can keep blood pressure at healthy levels and avoid living in a constant state of angst.

1. Someone this question made me think of a SNL skit during the Iraq War where the press would ask where exactly our troops were planning to attack. It’s a stupid question that doesn’t deserve an answer.

2. We saw during the first term that he would treat an EO as an accomplishment even though the rule making and implementation might take a long time and look different from what was promised.