Five days ago, President Joe Biden delivered an unexpected shock to the political world, challenging Donald Trump to join him in some future debates. The former president quickly accepted, and potential candidates from both major parties began working to prepare for the next phase of the process.
The Republican’s strategy, however, deserves closer examination – because, at first glance, it is deeply strange.
Part of the problem with Trump’s strategy is that He’s lowering expectations for Biden’s performance, which is the opposite of what he should be doing. But the other part of the problem is that the former president and his allies continue to take curious photographs at the event itself.
Just hours after Team Trump agreed to the next debate schedule, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee Lara Trump said Fox News that the June event is “heavily rigged in favor of Joe Biden.”
Two days later, the former president himself attacked on CNN – the network scheduled to host the first debate – and specifically targeted Jake Tapper. Tapper will be one of the moderators of the next event.
Perhaps most notably, Trump also appeared to create a new condition for participating in the June debate. The Daily Beast observed:
“I just want to debate this guy, but by the way, I’m going to demand a drug test. I am, I really am,” Trump told supporters in São Paulo.
At the same event, the former president again falsely accused the sitting president of being on performance-enhancing drugs during his 2024 State of the Union address, which was, and is, so ridiculous how it looked.
Trump assorted substitutes It is sycophants they are, however, selling the same line.
At first glance, it might be tempting to think that the Republican, after reflexively accepting Biden’s offer without much thought or planning, might be trying to back out of the first scheduled debate. After all, between Lara Trump’s “manipulated” comments, the former president’s willingness to denounce the sponsoring news network and a debate moderator, and the candidate’s “I just want to debate this guy, but…” rhetoric , it’s easy to get the impression that Trump might be looking for a way out.
And that may be true, although I suspect something more is going on here.
One of Trump’s favorite measures is to try to establish parameters preventatively, in the hope of being able to explain failures. We see this all the time with his criminal charges: the Republican argues that prosecutors are criminals, judges are corrupt, the system is broken, and the jurisdiction cannot give him a fair trial.
If he is convicted, he will say: “See? I was right all along. If he is acquitted, he will say: “My success was all the more impressive given that I faced a corrupt system.”
The same seems to be true here. If Biden comes out on top in the debate, Trump wants to be able to tell his followers, “I’ve said all along that the debates are rigged, the moderators were unfair, and my opponent is on drugs.” If the former president, however, does well, he will declare: “I won the debate despite the process being rigged and Biden having an unfair pharmacological advantage.”
In other words, Trump is probably not trying to get out of the debate, but rather trying to ensure that he cannot lose the debate.
This article was originally published in MSNBC.com
