A fantastic behind-the-scenes look at Donald Trump’s debate performance Tuesday night by Axios’ Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen reminds us why Trump is so dramatically unfit to be president.
Let’s take a look.
Here's what troubles former President Trump's advisers most: He knew that with precision and preparation, Vice President Harris would bait him on things like crowd size, and buck discussion about her power today and liberalism in the past [...] But he blew it badly ... repeatedly ... predictably. He simply cannot help himself, Trump insiders begrudgingly admit.
Imagine those insiders knowing and admitting that Trump is easily baited and “can’t help himself,” and yet still working to elect him president.
Imagine a foreign adversary baiting him with, “My crowd sizes are bigger than yours!” We’d have a nuclear Armageddon in minutes.
Trump knew — and was told — he could walk off the convention stage up double digits in the polls if he exploited the assassination attempt and cut the grievance crap.But just like Tuesday's debate, he simply couldn't help himself. He went on for 60 more rambling minutes in that convention speech, rehashing his greatest grievance hits.
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What a stupid notion. Trump was never going to be up by “double digits” no matter what. No one except for a handful of idiot reporters bought the whole “changed man” narrative. And how were Republicans going to harp on Trump’s assassination attempt when Trump was literally the same person who told us to “get over” school shootings? That’s why we never saw a bump in Trump’s numbers, even while President Joe Biden’s numbers slid (slightly) as Democrats turned against him.
It’s not surprising that Republicans, giddy with excitement over the images of Trump and his bleeding ear, would promise him such a result. Perhaps it was even manipulative, promising ice cream if he did his chores (“Stay on message!”). But that was never going to happen. And it doesn’t negate how funny it is that he couldn’t keep it together, going off script and talking about Hannibal Lecter.
The same pattern unfolded at the debate, like clockwork. You saw it in the first 20 minutes or so: Trump was calm, confident, self-controlled in discussing the economy and what he could deliver for voters.
I don’t know. I saw a man rattled by a simple handshake, looking annoyed as Harris went through her early debate messaging, refusing to look at her because … has anyone figured out why? Normal humans look at each other.
Then Harris went for Trump's obvious ego soft spot: crowd size. You don't need to be Freud to know Trump is sensitive about his fans — and their attention and affection. Advisers told him she'd bait relentlessly on this or similar topics. Don't bite, they counseled.He didn't just nibble at the bait. He crushed it like a starving, roaring river salmon. He was on a wild run the rest of the debate.
Does America really need a president with zero impulse control? When his advisers actually offer sage (and obvious) advice, and he knows it’s good advice, he still can’t help doing the wrong thing.
Trump was bad enough in 2016 when he wasn’t as old, addled, and weighed down by petty grudges and grievances.
Axios also reports on Trump’s actual strategies.
He was told to repeatedly ask why Harris hadn't used her power as vice president to do all the wonderful things she promises today.
The obvious reasons are: 1) she wasn’t president, and 2) Republicans in Congress blocked much of the Democratic agenda, including the bipartisan border deal. Still, when it comes to politics, if you’re explaining—you’re losing. And Harris could’ve easily retorted, “Why didn’t you build your border wall? Why are crime rates down since you left office? Why did you tell people to inject bleach?”
He was told to repeatedly remind viewers that Harris wants to focus on the future because the present is more bleak and her past is much more liberal than she presents today. Simply ask viewers: Do you feel richer and safer today than you did under Trump?
Polls show that people have selective memory, and don’t really remember how bad things were at the height of COVID. It’s doubtful that many people’s lives were better during a deadly global pandemic and economic collapse than they are today with low unemployment, a roaring stock market, and falling inflation.
We do know that the economy and framing the “Are you better off” question around inflation specifically are winning strategies for Republicans. In fact, the modern GOP message can be summarized quite simply as “security”: personal security (crime), financial security (inflation), and cultural security (the “woke mind virus”). All three issues can be powerful if properly deployed, so much so that Trump has gotten traction out of them despite his clumsy messaging and inability to get past his own victimhood and grievances.
But what doesn’t land here is the notion that “the present is more bleak.” Is it? At the debate, Trump was weakest when he was yelling things like “Our country has gone to hell!” No one outside of the most fervent MAGA minions actually thinks our country has gone to hell.
He was told to hold her accountable for the deadly, hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan. Yet when the moderators teed up that softball twice, he swung at other topics.
He sure did. But ABC moderators were so biased against Trump, right? Here they were giving the Trump campaign exactly what they wanted, and he refused to engage. That’s on Trump.
VandeHei and Allen then speculate as to why Trump couldn’t manage the relatively simple task of just staying on message: He’s “haunted” by his 2020 loss and being labeled a loser; he falls for fake news like the racist lie that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Ohio; he’s old and won’t change his habits; and he surrounds himself with conspiracy theorists like Laura Loomer who are happy to lie to him.
That sums up the case against Trump’s reelection very neatly. Age alone is not disqualifying. The other three factors are, and it’s a blight on our country that he still has a chance to win this thing.
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