Trump Blew the Debate

Of course, Trump was debating three people instead of just the cackler, but he missed a huge opportunity to win over independents with clear policy initiatives. Even this morning, with questions from a friendly audience in a Pennsylvania diner on Fox News, he failed to make key points. He was asked by one MAGA clothing-wearing supporter what he would do about inflation. He wandered around and bloviated, never really answering the question. When I had to endure media training as part of the pre-command course, they taught us to have your key talking points clearly enumerated and to steer conversations back to them.

Most “news” sources agree that after last night’s debate, we learned nothing new about either candidate’s policies. While Harris doesn’t seem to have any, Trump DOES have policies that have worked in the past that he could have asserted were going to be his policies again during his second term.

When the moderators and his friendly audience this morning asked how he would address inflation, he missed the opportunity to lay out his plan. He should have started with the statements from Milton Friedman that all inflation is caused by government action. He should have then ticked off the following talking points on his fingers:

• Open pipelines, support fracking, drill, and build tons of new, safe, clean nuclear power plants to get America back on the road to energy independence.
  Impose tariffs on foreign imports that, in the opinion of some on the Left, like Lee Iacocca, would level the trade playing field.
  Deport illegal aliens who are consuming resources. He was asked how he would do this, but he didn’t answer the question. I really wanted to hear how he planned to do this. He could have pointed to Eisenhower after WWII. Instead, I found myself yelling “Answer the question” at the television.
  Drastically shrink the size of the federal government. This was his chance to talk about using Elon Musk to head up a blue-ribbon panel to cut the size of federal departments – and maybe even get rid of some like the Department of Indoctrination.
  Make his middle-class tax cuts permanent.
  Cancel unexecuted parts of the inflation exacerbation act and return unused money to the treasury.
  Return to the rule that four regulations must be repealed for every new one. This will create a business-friendly environment that encourages job creation.
  Fix the tax code to encourage companies to move jobs back onshore.

These are talking points that are understandable by middle America. You don’t have to have a frivolous degree in something that ends in “studies” to understand these points and their impact on your life. He could have then contrasted this with Biden-Harris policies that have created rampant inflation.

Instead he waved his hands at non-specific assertions that he had the best economy in the history of the universe, blah, blah, blah. He missed a huge opportunity to lay out his policies. Instead, he dropped back into classic Trump name-calling and attacks. As a result, the mainstream media is touting the debate as a huge Harris success — and they might be right.