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Humiliation.
It’s the one thing Trump fears most.
He may be a shame-free, psychopathic criminal hell-bent on cheating his way into the history books as the only man to win the Presidency twice despite losing two elections.
But Bunker Boy does hate being laughed at.
He and his team have spent months telling us how Biden was deteriorating mentally, hiding in his basement, and scared to debate.
But that was all projection. Trump is the one who started out with the fewest marbles and has been visibly losing his limited supply for the past four years. Trump is the one who fled to his bunker in fear of protesters, while Biden went out to meet them face to face. Trump is the one openly advertising to the world how terrified he is of stepping into the ring with a man he feared so much that he committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors just to fabricate some dirt on him.
This was Trump in Florida on Thursday night:
Trump is behind in the polls and crushingly unpopular after ruining the economy while allowing COVID infections to top 7 million and deaths to soar past 200,000. And he has also foolishly lowered the bar for Biden to a level that the former VP just has to ride in on a bicycle or call Trump a “jerk” or an “asshole” to his face to be declared the winner by a knockout.
How bad will the debates be for the Failure-in-Chief? I reached out to six people, five of whom I’ve interviewed here on Substack in recent months, and one who has kindly agreed to be interviewed in the days ahead.
Below are their highly personal takes on the one question I asked each of them:
“How will Trump perform at the debates?”
Author and writer of the PREVAIL newsletter Greg Olear (@gregolear):
I will be amazed if Trump doesn’t bow out. He is so good at controlling the narrative, but how can he do that against Joe Biden, in a debate moderated by Chris Wallace? If he participates, I anticipate benzo, low-energy Trump.
Lawyer, author and writer of the Shero newsletter Amee Vanderpool (aka @girlsreallyrule):
Trump will do at the debates what he always does—try to thread a rhinoceros through the eye of a needle, while he converts everyone’s shock into adoration.
USA Today Opinion columnist Jason Sattler (aka @LOLGOP) of the GOTMFV Show podcast:
Inflammatory. He needs to light a shit fire that will distract from the 200,000+ dead Americans, the nearly 30 million unemployed and the actual fires scorching this country. Expect him to smear threats and accusations thicker than his clown makeup.
Historian and scholar of fascism, Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat), whose new book “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present” will be published on November 10:
Authoritarians don’t generally put themselves in situations where they have a disadvantage and cannot control their environments. If he does debate, he will go as low as possible and try and provoke Biden, while simultaneously acting in ways that keep his followers feeling he is the victim and must be protected.
Media and political researcher Tony Cardinale (@TonyAtAIS), President of American Insight & Strategy:
Trump is untethered from truth and reality, and he totally lacks the ability to feel shame, which makes him a uniquely challenging debater. He’s not able to read the room because of his low EQ, so he just bulldozes through it, making it nearly impossible to “Dan Quayle” him. It’s probably too much to ask for Biden to try to keep up with Trump’s lies. Biden’s best approach is to simply dismiss Trump as failed, and to almost act like he’s not there. If anything could throw Trump off, it’s for Biden to communicate consistently that Trump is not relevant to our future, and that his moment is over.
Clinical psychologist and creator of DutyToInform.org, Vince Greenwood, Ph.D, (@dutytoinform):
I am not expecting any significant surprises from him. Lying constantly really is his baseline and that won’t change. There will be the big lies, the oft-repeated talking points e.g “our numbers are great compared to other countries,” “we have testing for everyone.” But also, a number of little lies—off the cuff, win the moment type lies that are instinctual. He is unable to talk about policy or substance because of his ignorance and indifference to it. He will digress to his usual bluster.
If you want a preview of his performance, it will probably be similar to the way he handles his daily “press conferences.” I think he is smart enough to tamp down the nakedly racist comments he can utter at his rallies. He may try to mouth a few sentences of empathic understanding, but he has never been able to pull that off convincingly. A few of my colleagues are convinced he has had a significant cognitive decline in the past few years. If so, maybe that will surface. His recent one-on-one non-Fox interviews have been a disaster. One can hope. But it seemed Hillary vanquished him in the 2016 debates and it proved not to be the case. Certain losers will be the use of the English language, decorum, and the exercise of reason.
There will be a moment where Biden (and possibly the moderator) will hold him accountable for all the needless suffering. He will shamelessly attack and lie, but it will look weak and ugly. That, at least, will be gratifying (even if 40% of the country shrugs).
What do you expect to see from Trump in the debates? Comments are open!
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