Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff under Barack Obama, advised Democrats on Thursday to zero in on the 2026 midterm elections even as President Donald Trump acts as a “chaos machine” in his second term.

Emanuel — in a Washington Post op-ed shared on the day that the House passed Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — wrote that the fight over the bill serves as Democrats’ “ripest opportunity” to help define what’s at stake in the midterms, adding that the party shouldn’t fall for Trump’s “distractions” in the meantime.

“That’s a trap,” Emanuel stressed.

“Incensed by each successive outrage, our ill-defined and unfocused reactions too often make us appear like defenders of the status quo. At heart, Americans really do want reform — but they also want protection against Trump’s chaos.”

He continued, “Once voters understand that congressional Republicans are a rubber stamp, they’ll be looking explicitly for a check on his chaotic corruption.”

The bill slashes a combined $1 trillion in funding for health and food programs while giving about $4 trillion in tax cuts to mostly high earners.

Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, stressed in his op-ed that while Democrats should continue to “oppose the MAGA agenda,” the party controls none of the three branches of government and must focus on “what’s winnable.”

He summed up the GOP-backed bill in one blunt phrase — “tax cuts for the wealthy, health-care cuts for the many” — before adding that the “simplicity of that binary is its virtue.”

He explained that the bill’s passage in the House comes as Trump acts as a sort of “disciple of professional wrestling” who will “try to distract from the underlying reality,” pointing to the president’ promises that he wouldn’t touch Medicaid.

“We can’t chase every shiny bauble — we need to laser focus on points that will deliver strategic value. This is our opportunity to define Trump and his congressional enablers,” Emanuel wrote.