Debate Analysis: President Trump

The presidential debate has come to its conclusion, and it has left much to dissect and take note of.

Taking a perspective on how former President Trump performed is perhaps best showcased through the fact that mere moments after the debate’s conclusion, he was in the media’s spin room, deliriously proclaiming that he won the debate by a landslide according to numerous (unnamed) polls.

When put under a microscope, however, this claim can not be further from the truth.

The first onstage exchange served to symbolically represent the dynamic between the two candidates, with Harris crossing the stage to meet Trump where he stood, shaking his hand firmly and introducing herself.

Trump was given the opportunity to respond to Harris’ strong opening statement, where she framed one of Trump’s touted economic policies as a “Trump sales tax”.

Trump then made it abundantly clear that he would not be implementing a national sales tax, but rather implementing a tariff on national exports.

Notably, however, he chose to not reply to Harris’ claims that his economic policies would further raise prices for Americans, instead choosing to shift the topic to illegal immigrants: “On top of that, we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they're coming in and they're taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics and also unions.”

This would prove to be a recurring theme throughout the night, where Trump would hint at a populist response, one which would presumably appeal to a widespread of voters, only to then drive the topic back to immigration.

Trump criticized Harris for her role in the Biden administration which he claims has left many families unable to afford basic necessities.

Trump also brought up the topic of inflation and how “I had no inflation, virtually no inflation, they had the highest inflation, perhaps in the history of our country because I've never seen a worse period of time.”

In doing so, he dodged the initial question of whether or not his proposed tariffs would raise prices for the average American by instead going on the offensive and attacking his opponent.

Whether that will appeal to voters is up for the time to tell, but it has certainly worked in the past.

At this point in the night, Harris looked strong. Far stronger than Biden, but by no means did Trump look like he was “losing” either.

That was until the topic of abortion was brought up, when Trump was asked why women voters should trust him to preserve their reproductive rights, considering he was proud of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, a decision which polled negatively for upwards of 80% of voters.

Trump’s first choice of words to answer this question was “Well, the reason I'm doing that vote is because the plan is, as you know, the vote is, they have abortion in the ninth month. They even have, and you can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia, not the current governor, who's doing an excellent job, but the governor before. He said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we'll execute the baby.”

He later attempted to disparage Harris’ vice presidential pick, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, “And her vice presidential pick, which I think was a horrible pick, by the way for our country, because he is really out of it. But her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it's execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born, is okay. And that's not okay with me. Hence the vote.”

Multiple news sources have found this claim to be false.

Trump later called Harris a “Marxist” despite earlier in the night claiming that he wanted to send her a “MAGA” hat for how often she copies his policies. He then went on to deny responsibility for involvement in the Jan 6. Capitol riots, and maintained that he did not lose the 2020 election.

Later, he claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield Ohio are eating people’s pets.

Throughout the night Trump was unable to stay on topic, seemingly rattled by the times Harris baited him into defensiveness over his political rally crowd sizes or failed business ventures.

Or perhaps anger from when debate hosts Lindsey Davis or David Muir checked him in real time on false claims he made throughout the night, leading him to later claim on TruthSocial "I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!"

When asked by debate host Lindsey Davis if he could clarify what his policy is regarding health care, and whether or not he actually has a plan, Trump stated “I have concepts of a plan,” followed by “I’m not president right now.”

It was moments like these that defined his performance throughout the night. Comfortable and at home while launching baseless accusations onto others, but directionless when tasked with presenting a tangible future for the country which voters could buy into.

Trump was given the opportunity to make the final closing statement, which he spent criticizing his opponent and the Biden administration, as well as lamenting that the United States is a “failing nation” and that foreign leaders are laughing at it from around the world.

Trump’s words stood in stark contrast to the vision of unity and prosperity that Harris propositioned, further highlighting his need to bring others down in order to sell a dream.

While it is clear that Trump's performance in this debate is unlikely to be as detrimental to the Trump campaign as Biden’s performance back in July was to his, in an election as tight as the Trump-Harris race is setting up to be, last night’s results could prove to be pivotal.

Polls on how swing voters thought either candidate fared are still being conducted, but from the general reactions of political pundits and campaign strategists, Trump seemed firmly out of control throughout nearly the majority of the night.

Ultimately, the most damning fact of tonight which was abundantly clear to all watching was Trump’s incapability of answering questions directly or honestly.

Few outside of the most die-hard Trump supporters will be able to look at Trump’s performance in the debate against Harris as a success.

However, the race is far from over, as the Democratic Party’s rebounding from the disastrous Trump-Biden debate back in July proves.

Trip Tagle is a second-year majoring in digital and print journalism. To contact them, please email tnt5403@psu.edu.