The latest kerfuffle over a tweet by President Donald Trump is a sad reminder of how quickly the trivial can dominate Washington headlines even when there are much more pressing issues to address.

Sadly, the president has only himself to blame.

Trump took to Twitter Thursday to criticize Mika Brzezinski after the co-host of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC made comments critical of the president. “I heard poorly rated @Morning Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came … to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”

There is no defense of Trump’s tweet. It is, like so many of his tweets, petty. The tweet was, as Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said, a comment beneath the office of the president.

Other Republicans criticized the president, including U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, whose congressional district includes Lawrence. Jenkins tweeted, “This is not okay. As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women.”

It is not surprising that Trump tweeted something controversial. He has done so many times before. Efforts by his staff to curtail this behavior, apparently, haven’t worked.

But almost as frustrating as the president’s behavior on Twitter is the obsession with it. Trump is one of the first presidents elected in the Twitter era. Never before has a president tweeted so often and so randomly. He tweets more than he speaks, and on some levels, it’s understandable that the media treat every tweet as the official position of the White House. The White House has even said the tweets are “official.”

But the parsing of Trump’s tweets is almost overwhelming. Some media members have taken to having exchanges on Twitter with the president. For example, on Thursday, Brzezinski responded to the president’s tweet with a tweet suggesting Trump has small hands. Really? This is the news of the day?

How frustrating that must be for those Americans worried about their jobs, taxes, health insurance, Social Security, college tuition or any of the myriad other important issues that should be the focus of discussion in Washington. The president consistently criticizes the media for not focusing on such important issues, especially jobs.

The irony of course is that Trump can completely control this issue. He need only show a modicum of self-restraint when it comes to Twitter. His presidency — and the country — would be well served if he did so.