soft on

Appearing soft on illegal immigration could also be troubling for Newsom if he intends to run for president in a nation that elected a Republican in November who pledged mass deportations.

Somewhere the detail changed to him being “soft on the players” and a news outlet reported his faux past as a pro football referee as fact.

Criminals know the law is soft on shoplifting, Mr Puntambekar believes, so suspects are carrying out crimes in plain sight.

Media outlets were condemned as being too hard or too soft on him, for reporting on this and not that, for promoting false narratives or not exposing them, for choosing the wrong headline or photo.

Trump's longheld antipathy towards the WHO is rooted in a perception that it was dominated by - and so soft on - China, which the president has long believed was responsible for the spread of the virus.