Trump’s High-Stakes Debate: Can He Balance Toughness With Likeability?

Thursday’s presidential debate is no cakewalk for President Donald Trump. While there have been numerous video examples of President Joe Biden losing his faculties, we should expect that he will rise to the occasion somehow. The expectations for Biden are extremely low, so the liberal media will declare him the winner if he knows his name.

On the other hand, Trump has a tall order for winning. First, the debate is on CNN, formerly known as the Clinton News Network. They can shut off Trump’s microphone. What if they had the power during some of Ronald Reagan’s debates? Would we have heard “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience” or how about “I paid for this microphone”? We probably would have never heard these great lines.

Second, the questions will be slanted. We can expect a ton of questions about January 6th and all the trumped-up criminal cases against our former president. Whereas, inflation, the price of gas and insurance, foreign policy and the border might be left out.

However, the biggest problem for Trump is the strategy for winning. All of his supporters, including me, want to see him pummel Biden with attacks. They want Trump to rip him apart piece by piece. We have all suffered under the Biden administration, so verbally beating him to a pulp is long overdue.

The problem with Trump kicking the crap out of Biden is that he is feeble. Trump could come off as a bully, which will not win over the soccer mom types. How many people have said they voted against Trump in 2020 due to his mean tweets?

Trump has to come out of this debate likeable, which will not give his supporters the satisfaction they crave. People want his policies. Now they need to know that they want him back in the White House. Being bombastic in the debate could be very detrimental to his reelection efforts. So, when CNN asks a question on January 6th, he needs to give a one-line answer and then move quickly to inflation or the border.

On the campaign trail, Trump has been pushing no taxes on tips. It is a winner because he comes off as sympathetic to service workers. He needs this philosophy to win the debate.

All eyes are on Trump in this debate. Polling shows that Biden is not well liked, and no one other than Jill Biden thinks he’s up to running the country for another four years. It is up to Trump to make his case.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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