Trump’s Team Was Stunned by How Badly He Did in Debate

While Donald Trump’s team is publicly pushing a postdebate victory lap, many in his camp were privately disappointed in the Republican candidate’s performance on Tuesday.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Wednesday night that several Trump insiders were “stunned” by his poor performance and by just how easily he fell for all of Kamala Harris’s attempts to provoke him.

“I’m told that as soon as Donald Trump exited that debate stage, he immediately began quizzing those waiting in his viewing room about how the last 90 minutes had gone,” said Collins. “While several people praised him to his face, telling him they did a great job, that’s not what a lot of them are saying privately today.

“Instead, those around Trump have described what happened as a draw at best and a loss at worst,” Collins said. “Several of them told CNN they were stunned that the former president failed to do a better job executing on the talking points that he had been preparing with his team for weeks against Vice President Harris, her record, her policy reversals.”

Apparently, all that practice with members of his team, such as former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, had ultimately amounted to very little when it came time to debate.

“Trump had actually done more debate prep ahead of his first meeting with Harris than he did for his debate with President Biden earlier this summer. Yet they didn’t believe that he made some of the central arguments against her,” Collins explained. She said that Trump had failed to utilize one of his main criticisms against her: that Harris hadn’t enacted many of her campaign promises during her time in office.

“He didn’t go there until his closing argument, which surprised a lot of people in his inner circle,” Collins said. “Instead, they believe that Trump took the bait every single time Harris offered it up.”

“While multiple Trump allies described what happened last night as a missed opportunity for the former president, they have since started downplaying the debate’s significance overall,” Collins said.

Emerging details behind the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump suggest that by the second commercial break, Harris was totally in control—and Trump knew he was blowing it.

As soon as the stagehands announced that the duo were clear for the four-minute commercial break, Trump lunged off the stage and away from the former prosecutor, letting a heavy sigh escape his pursed lips, according to CBS News’s Sara Cook.

While he was gone, Harris reportedly spent half of the break writing nonstop on her sheet of paper, only pausing to fix her hair.

“She then reviewed what she wrote for the next minute, making a few tweaks, before putting the pen down and looking out around the room with her hands folded in front of her. She took a sip of water from a glass placed under the lectern,” reported Cook.

Trump reemerged behind the podium with 30 seconds to air. The candidates did not look at each other, but stared straight ahead until the program resumed.

In the aftermath of the debate, Trump has baselessly attempted to claim that every postdebate poll has indicated he won the face-off. A CNN flash poll after the debate indicated that 63 percent of Americans felt that Harris outperformed Trump.

Meanwhile, conservatives have spent the better part of the day lamenting Trump’s performance, with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham decrying the MAGA leader’s performance as a “disaster.”

Donald Trump sought to visit the 9/11 memorial in New York City Wednesday to commemorate the twenty-third anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

But apparently he hasn’t been to this event much in years past (if at all), because one of the attendees was picked up by C-SPAN’s microphones calling out the former president and convicted felon.

“Where were you for 20 years? I’ve been here. Where were you?” one angry person asked Trump.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, considering how thin-skinned Trump and his supporters can be, the person was not captured on video. Trump is not particularly well liked in his native city, and he isn’t particularly happy with New York after its residents gave him his only criminal conviction in May. Bizarrely, during his visit to the Big Apple on Wednesday, he brought along the 9/11-denying, proudly Islamophobic, and self-described “pro-white nationalist” Laura Loomer.

The ceremony Wednesday was also attended by his running mate, J.D. Vance, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, but none of them appear to have been targeted by any hecklers. Trump doesn’t have the best history of honoring slain Americans, whether it’s his visit to Arlington National Cemetery last month to make a campaign video or his refusal, in Paris in 2018, to visit the graves of American soldiers killed in World War I, calling them “suckers and losers.”

At least on Wednesday, Trump doesn’t appear to have said anything insulting or weird about the people killed in 2001, even if he seems to have only gone to the 9/11 commemoration because it’s an election year.

J.D. Vance invited the internet Tuesday to “keep the cat memes flowing,” hoping to spread cartoonishly racist rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio had begun eating house pets (which even he acknowledged were probably untrue).

Donald Trump would later go on television that night and make an impassioned—and entirely nonsensical—plea to the American people to buy into the xenophobic smears.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in! They’re eating the cats! They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people who live there,” Trump cried, while Kamala Harris laughed at him.

Ultimately, there is little humor to be found in a presidential candidate spreading extremist right-wing lies that have already made targets of a group of extremely vulnerable people.

Still, Trump’s mindless parroting of these lies did lead to an onslaught of memes, but not the lame A.I.-generated ones that Vance had hoped for. On X, a veritable tidal wave of memes have emerged nailing Trump for just how stupid he sounded.

While many right-wing pundits are blaming ABC moderators for undermining Trump during the presidential debate, The Onion’s CEO Ben Collins pointed out in a post on X that Trump could do bad all by himself.

Comedian Kylie Brakeman wrote that Trump had originally made the outlandish claim in response to Harris’s claim that he was too outlandish.

At home across America, viewers of all species were disturbed by the president’s empathic delivery of patently unsubstantiated claims.

But some could acknowledge that maybe there was something different about Trump’s cadence as he unloaded his total garbage—maybe even musical?

There were actually a lot of Simpsons references, for some reason.

Most regrettably, some X users quickly moved to verify Trump’s claims. What they found was beyond disturbing.

At the bottom of this internet spiral, there are two simple truths. One, combating the lies of Trump and Vance requires facts, such as the official statements of local officials who insist that there are “no credible reports” to back up the Republican presidential ticket’s fantastical claims of migrants digging in on house pets.

And another point, that countering Trump’s blatant extremism requires an acknowledgment of just how ridiculous he has become.

“F you, Taylor Swift!” shouted Megyn Kelly, “and f all of the people who want to see these children have body parts chopped off.”

For those not fluent in Republican crazy-speak, Kelly’s meltdown was triggered by Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris the night before, barely one hour after Trump all but face-planted on the debate stage. Kelly was especially triggered by Swift highlighting her appreciation for vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s support of LGBTQ+ rights.

“So this woman is fine with his plan to take custody of the children from parents who won’t want them to chop off their body parts and put them in Minnesota courts’ custody so the body parts can be chopped off and they can be sterilized,” Kelly ranted, echoing Trump’s recent baseless lies about “transgender operations.”

Other Republicans seemed just as nervous about Swift’s endorsement. Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance took a more cordial tone speaking with Fox News on Wednesday—but still felt the need to weigh in on the news. “I don’t think most Americans, whether they like her music or are fans of hers or not, are gonna be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans.” (Perhaps the same could be said of Donald J. Trump.)

Other right-wing commentators, like Ben Shapiro, took another approach: making fun of Swifties. “Note: if you vote for a particular candidate because your favorite singer is doing so, please don’t vote. You are too stupid to vote,” wrote Shapiro on X. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, threatened to impregnate her.

Trump himself offered a vague threat to the singer, saying, “She’ll probably pay a price for it at the, uh, in the marketplace.”

They probably have a right to be concerned. As of Wednesday morning, at least 300,000 people clicked on Swift’s link to register to vote.

Remarkably negative reactions to Donald Trump’s performance during his first formal matchup against Vice President Kamala Harris have left conservatives reeling—and Trump panicking.

On Wednesday, the former president attempted to wiggle out of any further debates against Harris, claiming that he had actually beaten Harris and deserved to be acknowledged for the “K.O.”

“In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Well, it’s no different with a Debate. She was beaten badly last night. Every Poll has us WINNING, in one case, 92-8, so why would I do a Rematch?”

Later, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Trump insisted that he didn’t believe he “had to do it a second time,” only to suggest that he could be open to following through on the two other debates slated to be hosted on NBC and Fox in the coming weeks.

(No polls have indicated that Trump would win by such a large margin. A CNN flash poll after the debate indicated that 63 percent of Americans felt that Harris outperformed Trump.)

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign was more than ready for a second face-off, inviting Trump to debate the former prosecutor again just hours after the debate ended.

“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement on Tuesday night. “That’s what they saw tonight and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

Conservatives can’t accept the fact that Donald Trump struck out at Tuesday night’s presidential debate, so they are claiming the whole thing was rigged against him.

Several right-wing politicians and personalities are crying foul, following the lead of the former president and convicted felon himself.

Newsmax’s Greg Kelly thinks that because ABC News used a blue set and signs reading “We the People,” and the DNC also used that as a slogan in the 2020 election, the network was biased against Trump. (Never mind that those are the first three words in the Constitution and the debate was held at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center.)

Former Trump adviser turned far-right legal troll Stephen Miller thinks that ABC was “aggressively working to sabotage and undermine the legal process.”

Even early in the debate, some on the right thought it was fixed against Trump. Clay Travis, who should probably stick to sports, saw “rigged news.”

Several on the right complained about Harris’s earrings, alleging that they were secretly “smart audio” earrings allowing her to cheat in some way. In reality, Harris’s earrings are Tiffany jewelry, in a different design and color than the devices the right alleged she was wearing.

The Human Events blog, run by right-wing conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, claimed that Trump’s placement on the left side of the stage with the camera pointing down at him was “a classic filmmaking technique to make someone appear villainous.” What this is based on is unclear, especially as film techniques actually say the opposite: People and objects moving from left to right actually inspire positive feelings in the audience, and vice versa from right to left. 

In reality, right-wing figures are making these complaints because even they can’t deny the fact that Harris soundly defeated Trump in Tuesday night’s debate. So they have to come up with conspiracies and allegations of a rigged contest to somehow spin the reality that Trump lost on Tuesday night. Just like when Trump lost the 2020 election, they can’t accept the truth even when it’s quite obvious.

Will there be another presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump? The former president and his campaign don’t seem to be on the same page.

On CNN Wednesday morning, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the campaign, told Kasie Hunt that Trump “has already said that he is going to do three debates.” But minutes later, on Fox News, Trump told Fox & Friends that he wasn’t sure about another debate.

“I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate. We had a terrible, a terrible network,” Trump said.

Last month, Trump’s campaign team wasn’t on the same page with Harris’s team, with the latter claiming that the two campaigns had agreed to two presidential debates and one vice presidential debate. Trump’s team, on the other hand, said there was an additional Fox News debate and two vice presidential debates. As of right now, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether there will be another debate at all and if J.D. Vance will decide that he doesn’t want to debate Tim Walz on October 1.

Trump complained and hedged about whether he’d actually show up to Tuesday’s debate, so it’s not surprising for him to cast doubt on debating again, especially considering how badly it went for him. The former president and convicted felon has not been taking it well, lashing out at Fox News and threatening Taylor Swift after the pop star endorsed Harris following the debate Tuesday night. If he looks at the stock price for his media company, he’d probably get even more upset.

Donald Trump really did not like getting live fact-checked by ABC News during Tuesday night’s debate, so much so he wants the network shut down.

In a call to Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, Trump called the debate “rigged” and claimed that due to the moderators debunking his false statements, “it was a three-on-one.”

“So many things I said were debunked, totally debunked, like Charlottesville,” said Trump, referring to his infamous “very fine people” line referring to neo-Nazis. Trump went on to complain that as he was under the microscope during the “unfair” debate, “[Kamala Harris] could say anything she wanted.”

“They ought to take away their license for the way they did that,” said Trump, in a clear threat to ABC News.

Trump lied for a good portion of Tuesday night’s debate, and ABC News moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir occasionally tried to chime in with a correction.

For example, when Trump said Democrats, including vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, “execute” babies after they are born, Davis clarified, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born.” And when Trump claimed, “They’re eating the pets,” referring to Haitian asylum-seekers in Ohio, Muir interjected that “there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” As Trump sparred with Muir over the correction, Harris looked on with disbelief.

When asked by Fox News why Trump felt moderators hadn’t given the same treatment to Harris, Trump answered: “Because they’re dishonest.” Perhaps, instead, Harris didn’t have the gall to lie so flagrantly and frequently on the national stage.

Donald Trump’s debate coach was torn to shreds online following the Republican presidential candidate’s disastrous performance, with critics online wondering who set the MAGA leader up for failure.

The woman behind the curtain was one of Kamala Harris’s 2020 Democratic primary opponents: former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who informally coached Trump for roughly a month before his first matchup against the vice president. But shortly after the debate concluded, commenters online ripped Gabbard apart for failing to adequately prepare Trump for his showdown against a former prosecutor.

“Shout out to Tulsi Gabbard for her brilliant debate prep—and to RFK Jr, for lending Trump his brain worm,” wrote one X user. “Well done you two!!!”

Another online critic sneered that Gabbard’s “career as a debate coach didn’t even last a whole Scaramucci,” referring to former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who famously lasted just 10 days in Trump’s White House.

Democrats also joined in on the fun, with one Harris staffer writing that “on behalf of Democrats everywhere, I’d like to thank Tulsi Gabbard for her hard work tonight.”

“Feel confident saying Trump got worked in that debate,” wrote former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor. “Prepping by holding ‘policy sessions’ with idiots like @mattgaetz and @TulsiGabbard was a fatal mistake. He looked angry, swallowed the bait every time, and his rants about eating animals and crowd size tanked in dials.”

Despite the fact that she likely has a one-way ticket off the Trump campaign, Gabbard was still working to salvage Trump’s performance in the aftermath of the debate, complaining on X that the debate was “three vs one,” with ABC News’s debate moderators “clearly shilling” for Harris. (In reality, ABC actually allowed Trump to speak for six minutes longer than his Democratic opponent over the duration of the debate.)*

* This article originally misstated how many extra minutes Trump got.