Trump has been booed again, but now is the time to concentrate on policy

It has been quite a week for Donald Trump when it comes to public appearances. Last Sunday he was roundly booed by a crowd in Washington DC as he watched the World Series, while on Saturday he faced more of a mixed reaction from the crowd at an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout in New York.

The president will be used to it. He has been dividing opinion since he joined the race for the White House in 2015. He appears to have little interest in anything other than securing his own supporter base and will look to achieve that however the rest of the country – or the world – sees him.

The booing or cheering provides ready-made footage for news outlets and can give a snapshot of how that particular area of the country is feeling about the president. But it is a passing story, that may provide a few seconds of laughter or frustration (delete as appropriate) but little beyond that.

But baseball did provide a story that deserves a longer run in the headlines in the last couple of days. Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle – whose team won the World Series this year – has already said he will decline an invitation to the White House to be congratulated by the president.

It is an honour bestowed upon championship-winning teams in all the major American sports, but a number of athletes – and in some cases whole teams – have refused the invitation since Trump took office. And given the reaction the president got from the crowd in Washington, it is doubtful too many Nationals fans will begrudge Doolittle his stance.

The reason for Doolittle saying no? ”There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post.

“At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it,” he added. “I just can’t do it.” The pitcher specifically mentioned “race relations” and LGBT+ rights and the president’s rhetoric around them.

Doolittle has the right idea. With less than a year to go until the presidential election, the media should be turning their attention to policy on immigration, civil rights and the climate crisis.

It is up to us to focus on that and hold Trump to account, beyond the boos and the cheers – and you can rely on The Independent to cover all the issues that are important. People across America, in the UK and around the globe deserve that.

Yours,

Chris Stevenson

Deputy premium editor