Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

[Lods]

It does make a lot of sense.  "Playing a straight bat" doesn't, though.  What doesn't it even mean in this context?

It means you let the checks and balances inbuilt in the system take care of Trump.
You don't raise a level of hate and hysteria against the individual but you work to tone that down and work against him with reasoned logic and argument.

If you adopt this approach any over-reaction on his part clearly draws a line between him and his opponents

Some folk are working against him in that respect and slowly but surely it will do the job.
Others have gone off half cocked  (Arts, academia, politicians) and they're the ones that are being counter productive.