What was the actual human cost, for example, of Trump proclaiming, in an April 3 press event in the Oval Office, that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi has done a “fantastic job in a very difficult situation” and that the United States is offering the Egyptian government “strong backing”? The New York Times editorial board sharply censured the president for his “borderline unctuous” words about an autocratic leader whose government holds thousands of political prisoners.

But a fortnight later we learned that Trump and his aides had managed to secure the release of an imprisoned American aid worker, Aya Hijazi, and her husband. (The Times had criticized Trump for “apparently” failing to raise the topic of Hijazi.) They had been imprisoned for almost three years, the Obama administration having apparently made little effort, rhetorical or otherwise, to effect their release. Let’s assume for a moment what seems likely, namely that Sissi was charmed into releasing the aid worker by Trump saying a few nice — and false — words about him.

In this instance, anyway, if we judge Trump by his actions rather than his words, he doesn’t come out so badly. We could go on. In 2013 he tweeted a warning to President Barack Obama not to attack Syria — “There is no upside and tremendous downside” — but of course in 2017 launched missile strikes on Syrian soil in retaliation for a chemical attack that involved no U.S. assets. During the campaign he labeled China a currency manipulator, but backed away from the claim this month. And so on.