Donald Trump’s recent debate performance against Kamala Harris revealed a glaring weakness in his political acumen, showing him to be a diminished figure compared to his 2016 self. Harris, exploiting Trump’s insecurities and lack of coherence, exposed his shallow grasp on key issues, while Trump’s post-debate attempts to distort reality signal his inability to accept failure. As the GOP clings to a leader driven by self-preservation and legal woes, the party risks being overshadowed by a personality cult rather than true conservative values. Meanwhile, Harris’ poise and command highlight her growing star power in a politically fractured landscape.
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By Timothy L. O’Brien
Donald Trump has lost his appetite for a second debate with Kamala Harris.
“I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night,” he told Fox News on Wednesday morning, several hours after Harris gave him a thumping in a presidential faceoff watched by at least 67 million people. “We won the debate. We had a terrible network.”
Trump didn’t have a great night. He didn’t win the debate either. And it wasn’t the ABC News network, the debate’s host, that caused Trump to recirculate lies about immigrants feasting on household pets, Democrats wanting to murder babies after they’re born, and Harris seeking “to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.” ABC also didn’t prompt Trump to glower, bloviate, sweat, rant and fail to cogently outline his economic plans or make a rational, sophisticated case for America’s role in the world.
All of that was the former president’s personal handiwork. Harris, exploiting his narcissism, ignorance and insecurities, dispatched him with ease. Trump doesn’t want a second debate because he doesn’t want to be embarrassed again by a younger Black woman who is smarter, more effervescent and more capable.
Trump has been haunted by a fear of failure for most of his 78 years, and aspires to have “I Won” engraved on his tombstone. So when he’s cornered — and especially when he loses — he seeks shelter in reality distortion bubbles. He lies to himself just as freely as he lies to voters. That’s a tricky psychological and emotional place for anyone to inhabit, of course, and flare-ups inevitably occur. It’s one reason the specter of violence hangs over upcoming US elections.
This leaves the Republican Party in a fragile place. Trump has an unshakeable hold on about a third of the party’s voters and loyalty from enough of the rest that he controls its current prospects. But he’s not appealing enough to broaden the party’s reach to command moderate and independent voters too. The Trump of 2024 is also a much degraded version of the Trump of 2016, and the debate highlighted that.
Yet Trump and the Republican Party are stuck with one another. Republicans, after briefly promising to abandon Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, siege at the US Capitol, ultimately failed to do the hard but necessary work of permanently exiling him. Democrats, on the other hand, belatedly showed President Joe Biden the door after recognizing he was far too diminished to beat Trump or even serve a second term. The speed with which he was eventually punted, and Harris was elevated, involved a breathtaking amount of cold-blooded calculation and political artistry. The GOP avoided taking on a similar responsibility.
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Political parties are meant to be screens for value, but sometimes they’re held hostage. In the Trump era, the GOP has become a cult of personality rather than a policy shop and many of its officeholders are Trump’s vassals. Core conservative values such as limited but enlightened government, strong national security, judicial restraint, fiscal probity and respect for engineering authentic economic growth have largely gone missing.
There are no deeper truths in Trump’s politics, and most of what propels him forward is either self-aggrandizement or self-preservation. Pursuing the presidency again offers both of those indulgences. The White House also offers insulation from the multiple legal perils that have enveloped the GOP’s leader, already a convicted felon, and his greatest motivation for returning to the Oval Office may be a desire to avoid prison.
Harris exposed Trump’s capacities and maturity as thimble-deep during Tuesday’s debate. She’s also converted Hillary Clinton’s 2016 mantra of “I’m with her” into a statement of commitment to her partisans and constituents: “I’m with you.” That dedication, along with her star power, are what animate her supporters.
But Trump also exposed his own shallowness. He wants so desperately to be re-elected that he regularly telegraphed his electoral contradictions and weaknesses.
He flip-flopped on reproductive rights because he wants to court both anti-abortion evangelicals in his party without alienating pro-choice moderates. He tied himself in knots trying to explain how states and the federal government bounce off of one another, legally and morally, around abortion. He couldn’t offer a clear-headed plan for how best to support Ukraine against Russian predations because traditional Republicans embrace US military force overseas while MAGA-teers think it’s all a waste of taxpayer funds. A further, self-induced complication is that Trump fetishizes Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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To be sure, Trump still has cards to play in the election. While Harris’ debate victory further established her bona fides and put more clothing on her candidacy, it doesn’t pave her path to the White House. That avenue runs through seven swing states where Trump retains strong support. Still, his defenestration during Tuesday’s debate unspooled every Republican who, only months ago, thought he had a lock on the election.
In the short weeks between now and Nov. 5, Trump’s messaging must become clearer and more focused, and strategic discipline has to rule the day. He’s surely going to hear that from the same advisers who failed to ensure that Nice Donald appeared in Philadelphia for the debate. The dilemma for his advisers and his party is that Trump doesn’t listen to experts or heed advice.
Like everyone who’s self-deluded, Trump never thinks his failures, ineptitude or lunacy are his fault. So he rarely course-corrects, and is unlikely to now — even after experiencing a drubbing from Harris that should be a wakeup call. Instead, presto, he converts a loss into a victory. Foul play explains everything else.
Harris performed well in the debate, Trump told Fox News on Wednesday, because she cheated. “They had a rigged show with somebody that maybe even had the answers,” he allowed. “I watched her talk, and I said, you know, she seems awfully familiar with the questions.”
No, no, no. Trump’s comeuppance arrived, courtesy of Harris, because he’s never been awfully familiar with the answers.
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