Donald Trump’s debate performance was far worse than even his inner circle anticipated.

While Donald Trump’s team is publicly pushing a postdebate victory lap, many in his camp were privately disappointed in the Republican candidate’s performance on Tuesday.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Wednesday night that several Trump insiders were “stunned” by his poor performance and by just how easily he fell for all of Kamala Harris’s attempts to provoke him.

“I’m told that as soon as Donald Trump exited that debate stage, he immediately began quizzing those waiting in his viewing room about how the last 90 minutes had gone,” said Collins. “While several people praised him to his face, telling him they did a great job, that’s not what a lot of them are saying privately today.

…

Apparently, all that practice with members of his team, such as former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, had ultimately amounted to very little when it came time to debate.

  • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
    188·
    2 months ago

    He did fine. He likely lost precisely zero votes. There was nothing for him to lose. It’s not like cult members watch their cult leader in a debate and then go “oh I guess I’ll leave my cult.” People leaving cults often literally have to go through a process of deprogramming and copious therapy.

    Harris did well, so maybe she picks up a point, but since she’s lost about a point since the DNC, that makes it essentially a wash. While it was a good debate for Harris, it ends up meaning very little. All the hyperventilating about it is way outsized to the effect.

    • elbucho@lemmy.worldEnglish
      81·
      2 months ago

      It’s really not about him losing votes, though. Despite the fact that there are a truly mind-boggling number of idiot cultists out there who are for some reason devoted to this moron, there are not enough of them to win an election. Both candidates need to appeal to the vast pool of undecided or apathetic voters in order to win. In 2020, the Democrats won because that pool of people were highly motivated to oust Trump after living through 4 years of his presidency, but people have very short memories and even shorter attention spans, and so the Dems can’t really count on the same thing happening again in 2024.

      When Trump was running against Biden at the beginning of this race, things were looking grim for the Democrats, because that group of morons who can’t be bothered to pay the slightest bit of attention to what’s happening in their government (apathetic & undecided voters) decided that they couldn’t really tell the difference between two senile, doddering old men, so Trump’s rambling incoherence wasn’t that big of a problem. Now that he’s facing someone more than 2 decades younger than him who still has the complete use of her mental faculties, it’s imperative for him to do SOMETHING to make himself not look like a shoeless old man in a hospital gown wandering between lanes of traffic after escaping from his rest home. This debate didn’t do that.

      • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
        24·
        2 months ago

        While that all may be true, if you look at projections for the electoral college based on polling numbers in battleground states, Trump is currently projected to win the presidency. So he actually doesn’t need to do much to make himself look any different, as frustrating and scary as that may be.

        Current projections have Harris winning the popular vote and losing the election. So if she doesn’t increase her vote share, she’s going to lose due to the vagaries of the electoral college. She basically need to win by something absurd like 3.4% and have that adequately reflected in about five states.

    • Bobmighty@lemmy.world
      81·
      2 months ago

      He did very poorly. His base is largely racist whites. Harris knows that very well and made sure to embarrass him in ways the base wouldn’t like. Belittled him to his face as if he was nothing, and smirked at his impotent old man rage. She made trump look old and bumbling, and even conservative media is having trouble denying it.

      He looked weak and it will cost him votes. Especially since his campaign is barely trying dogshit at the moment.

    • chingadera@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 months ago

      Is it immoral to start a cult and continue to use cult tactics to steal members from another cult to deprogram them and herd them all into therapy? Asking for a friend, and 90% of our parents.