Trump: The Master Debater

There is a common view of Trump, that of the debater. Not that he has any eloquence with his speech or he is able to outsmart his opponents, but his ability to appear as if he did. Trump has taken part in four periods in which he had widely viewed televised debates. The first would be in the 2016 republican primary where he debated the other candidates seeking the nomination and used it to gain widespread attention. Second was the 2016 general election debates where he debated the democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and while many view it as Hillary winning, his energy during the debate was able to win many to view him winning. The third instance was the presidential debate with Joe Biden in 2020 in which many view Biden to have won, however this is in memory the least consequential of these. Last is the recent debates which Trump had with Joe Biden on June 27th and Kamala Harris on September tenth. This will examine the different periods and how they shaped or didn't change the perception of Trump's perceived ability to debate.

The debates between the different republican contenders for the nomination was Trump's first showing of his debating skill. How this performance is viewed depends on the person but broadly pundits did not like his loud and rude attitude while a popular view among republican voters was a positive view of his performance. This was followed through during all of the debates where the other candidates either poorly responded or did not truly know how to respond to Trump's debating style during the debates and so he came off looking like a superior debater. This developed the view in the public mind that Trump had certain debating skills, a view which will follow him through the next debates that will be discussed.

Trump's second nationwide viewing on the debate stage would be much different from the first. During the republican primary debates Trump was primarily being viewed by Republican voters but this time he would be viewed by democrats and independents too. During these debates Trump employed similar strategies to during the republican debates of continuously being on the attack. Clinton who was comparably a much more traditional political figure debated as such which is a strategy which does not work with Trump. While many found Trump off-putting this was not the only view of Trump's debate performance. Many held a positive view which shows a growing interest in the more Trump-like style of politics and particularly in debates where the perception of your views may matter more than what you actually believe.

This third series of debates can be viewed as the least consequential. While the 2020 election itself was a very consequential election, the debates did not have a very large impact. Biden is popularly viewed to have won this debate, however it is a victory without much memory. Biden had no singular moment that people truly pointed to to have said they "got him". Trump once again dominated the discussion with moments such as his "stand back and stand by" moment about the proud boys. This debate, much less than the previously discussed debates, had a much smaller effect on the election and while it did damage Trump’s perceived ability at debating it wasn’t truly a large amount of damage.

These two most recent debates can be viewed as very consequential in how they appear to have caused two different effects. The first debate between Trump and Biden has been perceived as a Trump victory with Biden being viewed as being having less energy or unable to compete with Trump. This led to Biden being dropped from the ticket and being replaced with Kamala. This grew the confidence people had in Trump's ability to debate. When the second debate did come around it flipped that narrative on its head. During the debate between Kamala and Trump he faced what he had not before, an opponent who was willing to attack him where it hurt him personally. During the debate she attacked him on his rally sizes and on his personal weakness. This more than any previous attack at a debate got to him. He gave much of his focus during the debate to it, losing easy wins on issues like immigration. Additionally he focused on issues which many do not care about such as a fake story of Haitians eating dogs in Ohio which he multiple times tried to make a debate topic. Additionally Kamala's ability to control the way the debate unfolded made Trump appear weak.

You may wonder if there is anything in particular Kamala brought to this debate which changed trump. Some factors must be given to why his performance here was weaker and I would give it to two factors number one would be age. When comparing the debates during the Republican primary and Clinton and the Kamala debate he has much less energy. It can be seen as he has gotten older he can respond slower and has lower energy. The second is Kamala's strategy. Unlike his previous debate opponents Kamala is much more willing to hit what actually hurts Trump which leads him to getting distracted and derailing his attempts to attack her. It most of all the mirage of the excellent Trump debating skill falling apart is due to facing tougher opponents who can fight his strategy and he cannot cope with that.

Written by NewJerseyRoundhead - Writer for The Radical Times Media & News Cooperative