Donald Trump is still flailing around trying to claim he won Monday night’s debate, or would have won if he hadn’t been cheated and done wrong in various ways. But his advisers are crystal clear that he lost, so they are flailing around trying to figure out how to get Trump to prepare for the next debate:
Some of the advisers want to practice getting under his skin, as Mrs. Clinton did, to gauge his response, but they offered no details about doing so. Others wanted practice sessions built around the next debate’s format, a town-hall-style meeting, where Mr. Trump is likely to engage with undecided voters asking him questions and, at times, move from his chair to walk the stage. Mr. Trump has little experience with the format, which can be challenging for people who do not practice managing their body language and movements.
Can you imagine Trump trying to deal with his advisers practicing getting under his skin? Mr. Thin Skin would end up firing everyone on his campaign the moment they succeeded in doing their jobs.
Several advisers also want to impress upon him the need to stick to a strategy and a plan of battle against a female candidate — the kind of opponent he has less experience facing — rather than spend time polishing a string of disparate zingers that Mrs. Clinton, a skilled debater, was able to easily parry Monday night.
“Don’t be so bluntly misogynist” is another thing it’s going to be hard to train into Trump in the next week and a half. We’re talking about his deepest impulses. You don’t eliminate those in the blink of an eye—which, if his preparation for this last debate is any guide, is all the time they’ll have with him.
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Preparing Trump to not completely alienate all the women watching the debate is also likely to be difficult if another of his campaign’s debate prep ideas is implemented: expanding the role of former Fox News head and serial sexual harasser Roger Ailes. To say nothing of how it’s going to go over if they’ve got Ailes advising Trump on attacking Clinton over her husband’s decades-old infidelities.
Maybe Trump will take debate prep more seriously this time around. But success will require him to basically become a different person: one who listens to other people, focuses, is able to shake off attacks, and doesn’t always go for the lowest possible blow first.
