Former President Donald Trump is gunning to debate President Joe Biden — as soon as possible. “I’d like to debate him now. … We should debate for the good of the country,” Trump said on “The Dan Bongino Show” on Monday.
Of course, the real reason Trump is so eager likely has nothing to do with the public good and everything to do with his estimation that he’ll be able to thrash Biden on the debate stage ahead of Election Day. But that playbook isn’t as clear-cut as Trump may think it is.
Trump seems to be in for as many debates as possible as long as he believes they will confer a political advantage to him.
The notion that Trump wants to debate Biden based on civic-mindedness is laughable. The aspiring strongman has actively sought to undermine the Republican debates in the run-up to the Republican presidential primaries: He not only shunned them, but held special events at the same time as them, competing with debate viewership and driving home the narrative that he was preparing for his coronation as the GOP nominee. Perhaps he wagered that he had more to lose than to gain from debating a large roster of fresh candidates and didn’t care to help Republican voters size him up against rising talent.
But all of a sudden Trump has become attentive to the health of democracy again. He told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in December that he’d want to do “10 debates” with Biden. In 2020, there were just three debates in the run-up to the general election (one of which was canceled after Trump contracted Covid). His desire for more of them — and apparently to do them as soon as possible, even before the primaries have ended — illustrates how he views debates through a gamified lens; Trump seems to be in for as many debates as possible as long as he believes they will confer a political advantage to him.
Trump’s apparent estimation that he has more to gain from the debates than Biden isn’t necessarily an unreasonable one. While Trump…
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