Donald’s debate dilemma: He’s his own worst enemy

Donald Trump is apparently convinced that he can’t possibly lose a debate to a man he calls “corrupt Joe Biden,” a man who he says is “the worst president in the history of our country,” someone who, he claims, “can’t put two sentences together.”

If they gave out Nobel Prizes for insults, Trump would already be on his way to Oslo to pick up the award. But here’s a reality check for the man who thinks Biden should be fired: By the end of the two scheduled debates, Trump may be the one who gets fired. There are a whole bunch of ways he could lose to Biden, and a lot of them would be from self-inflicted wounds. We’ll get to them shortly.

But first, let’s acknowledge that the reason President Biden is suddenly anxious to debate Trump is that it’s become clear that if he wants to win, he can’t run on his record. Too many polls show that voters don’t think he’s doing a good job. So Biden’s political team has decided that his best shot at winning is to make the election not a referendum on his record, but a referendum on Trump. He’s counting on the debates to remind voters who Trump is, and why they voted him out of office in 2020.

The debates won’t make much difference to the partisans who made up their minds long ago. Trump’s supporters will vote for him even if every word that comes out of his mouth during the debates is untrue. Biden may think Trump is an existential threat to the country, but the MAGA faithful think Biden is the real existential threat.

President Biden’s supporters, even if they think he didn’t do well during the debate, won’t abandon him. The alternative is a nightmare as far as they’re concerned — an unscrupulous, immoral man they are convinced will end democracy as we know it. They’ll stay with Biden even if he mumbles and stumbles through the debates.

That leaves the voters who can still be persuaded to go for one candidate or the other — those moderate voters who are still on the fence. Those are the voters the candidates will be trying to win over. This is where Trump can, and probably will, get into trouble.

If history is any guide, Trump will interrupt Biden all night long. As is his way, he won’t simply disagree with Biden on policy, he’ll come off as nasty in the process. Trump could give a TED talk or teach a MasterClass on rudeness.

None of this will sit well with suburban women, or college-educated swing voters, generally. If it brings back memories of the drama and chaos that were endemic to the Trump presidency, it won’t help him — and, if the race is tight, could cost him the election.

Trump has also made a mistake in setting the bar so low with his remarks about Biden’s inability to “put two sentences together.” If Biden is awake and still breathing when the debate is over, he could be seen as the winner.

So, can Trump lose? Absolutely. His fans may love the insults and interruptions, but what plays well with the MAGA crowd usually doesn’t go over so well with the rest of America, especially moderate Americans. Mean and nasty don’t sit well with them.

But a lot depends on which Biden shows up to debate — the high-energy Biden who delivered a pretty good State of the Union address to Congress, or the Biden who comes off as too frail to serve four more years.

Trump says he wants Biden drug-tested before the debate to make sure he’s not on some performance enhancing substance. He says Biden was “high as a kite” when he delivered the State of the Union address back in March. Of course, he has no proof of that, but when you’re dealing with Trump, that’s par for the course. So, as a friend of mine says, we’re not exactly off to a great start, are we?

If the debates actually happen and Donald Trump manages to lose one debate or both, the man who likely will have defeated him won’t be Biden. It will be Trump himself.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page.