Focus! Trump World’s distractions are accelerating democracy’s demise.

Oh, look — MAGA’s resident Mean Girl is at it again.

This time, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has taken over our social media timelines after unleashing the tired, xenophobic insult — “Go back to your country” — on a U.K. reporter who asked about President Donald Trump’s inept national security team accidentally adding a journalist to a Signal group chat where war plans were shared.

After initially trying to wriggle out of justifying the unjustifiable by throwing around insults, Greene made a big show of turning to “an American reporter” who — surprise, surprise — asked her to answer the British reporter’s question.

Did she care “about American lives being put at risk”?

Greene dodged the questions, and instead, the Pick Me Politician did what she and her ilk do best: pledge blind allegiance to Felon 47.

But let’s be clear: Greene’s disparaging a reporter isn’t the real story. What’s most concerning here is how the Trump administration’s treatment of reporters is a reflection of the contempt they hold not only for the truth but for any idea they must be accountable to the people they were elected to serve.

You may have heard about how the administration banned the Associated Press from covering White House events, or how it wants to break with decades of tradition and cherry-pick which reporters make up the presidential press pool.

Those aren’t just minor inconveniences for journalists. They’re all steps designed to keep the public from being exposed to anything except the Trumpified version of the truth the administration wants you to hear.

I am genuinely concerned about the future of the profession I love, especially under the suffocating orange haze of oligarchy. But just as worrisome as the attacks from Trump World are our industry’s self-inflicted wounds.

The spineless surrender to Trump by powerful news outlets like the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and ABC News is a dangerous betrayal of everything journalism is supposed to stand for. But so, too, are the savage cuts to newsroom staff and the shortsighted gutting of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at news organizations, including my own.

Not endorsing a presidential candidate in what may be the most consequential election of our lifetimes — as the Post and the LA Times did — and settling a defamation suit before there was so much as a deposition — as ABC News did — is not an oversight, it’s a choice. It is a calculated abdication of journalistic responsibility and a failure to rise to the occasion when it is needed most.

Likewise, eliminating the positions of journalists of color — at MSNBC, at the LA Times, and, yes, even here at The Inquirer — is also a choice, one that betrays our profession’s commitment to equity. Those lost jobs won’t just leave us with fewer watchdogs holding power to account, but also with fewer representatives of those communities that have borne the brunt of this administration’s attacks.

Wrong choice at the worst possible time.

It’s depressing to see media organizations — many of which have failed terribly at creating newsrooms that reflect the communities they cover — shrink further from that responsibility, and embolden a would-be autocrat.

And yet, as disturbing as the state of journalism is right now, when I see journalists — especially American journalists — stepping up to fulfill our obligation to the public, to our country, and to the craft of journalism, I am not just inspired, I’m invigorated.

Stories like the account of the many errors in the work of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, reporting on the misdeeds of Trump’s cabinet nominees, and the piece about the Signal debacle itself are proof we may be down, but we are not out. Not by a long shot.

And here’s the thing: We cannot stop. The harder elected officials push to skip accountability, insults, and all, the harder and more united we must be to push back. The public must keep demanding the truth, and journalists have to do all we can to continue providing it.

Not only that, we journalists must continue to remind the public about why we do what we do, and how at the heart of that mission is the fundamental principle that accountability in journalism is agnostic when it comes to party affiliation.

I don’t expect the warring partisan sides to believe this, but if Kamala Harris were president right now, we would be working to hold her accountable, too.

What we’re seeing in the aftermath of President Trump’s attacks on the press isn’t just animosity; it’s the misguided belief our work is driven by partisanship.

In reality, the Signal screwup and so many other incidents are simply outrageous behaviors that deserve to be called out — no matter which side of the aisle they involve.

Speaking of …

I appreciate and relate to Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s take-no-prisoners approach to this administration. I have a tactful friend who, in response to my self-destructive habit of speaking up regardless of the potential personal or professional cost, will gently suggest: “If you must, you must … but must you?”

Usually, the answer is yes … because democracy isn’t the only thing that dies with misdirected decorum. So I’m usually all in on whatever truth bombs Crockett aims at Greene or Trump.

But referring to Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, as “Governor Hot Wheels” was tactless and unnecessary, even if Crockett insists it wasn’t about his condition — and especially when there is no lack of other valid nicknames for Governor Failing Grid, Governor Border Stunts, Governor Boot Licker (though that one could be applied to just about every Republican governor lining up to worship at the Church of Trump).

And, sadly, just like Greene’s latest outburst, it took away from the stories that need to be front and center, like the accounts of college students being disappeared for sharing their political opinions, elected officials floating the notion that we really don’t need those pesky federal courts, and the endless attacks on our allies around the world, recklessly — if not intentionally — weakening American influence and strengthening our global adversaries.

We, and I’m talking about all Americans here, not just journalists, can’t afford to be distracted. We cannot let petty insults and personal attacks overshadow the crucial stories that need to be told and heard. We have to be laser-focused on what is at stake.

Journalists, and the news organizations we work for, need to remember our larger responsibility and recommit to our critical role in American democracy.

¡Vamos! We’re called the Fourth Estate for a reason.

The people in power who are doing everything they can to silence dissent, to limit our rights, and to crush the truth, need to be held accountable — no matter how loud or vicious they get.

Especially when they get loud and vicious.