Trump tantrumed and even quit a debate with Joe Biden in 2020, but now he’s even more emotionally volatile
Donald Trump has tried to taunt President Joe Biden by claiming he’s ready for a presidential debate “anytime, anywhere.” The gambit left him little choice but to immediately accept when the Biden campaign offered debate dates in June and September, and terms like not having an audience and allowing real journalists to moderate. But within mere hours it became clear that Trump and the rest of the GOP already regretted the decision.
Pretty quickly, Trump tried to change the terms of the debate, pretending that it will be held on Oct. 2 on Fox News. The Biden campaign swiftly rejected this lie, accusing Trump of “playing games,” and pointing out that Trump frequently talks big but then ends up "pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all."
It’s true, of course. Trump has a habit of promising that he’ll do bold things and then backing out, whether it’s his empty promises to testify at his various trials or his false claims he’ll release policy proposals in a week or two. (It’s been over a month of silence, for instance, since he promised he would release an abortion platform in “14 days.”) In 2020, still burned by his terrible first debate with Biden, Trump refused to show up at the second and held an ego-flattering rally instead.
I think this is vastly understating how prominently placed is total transparent bullshit, in the Trump mental model, and how willing his followers are to it
He can simply pretend that October 2nd is the real debate, and Biden is the one trying to back out because he’s too old and scared to debate Trump. If his followers also watched news with some connection to reality, and cross checked Trump’s pretenses against it, then they’d see the lie, but they don’t and they won’t.
Nah, that doesn’t give Trump any advantage. He can just go on Fox any time he wants and have a “pretend debate” with no one. There are still rules to the reality Trump supporters have in their heads.
Basically, Trump supporters want to see him as better than someone else. So that other person has to play along. If you notice, the Republicans who support Trump have to pretend that he’s better than them when they give speeches. It’s just a modern monarchy (a conservative form of government).
Biden doesn’t play along, so he actually doesn’t look weak. Trump was begging for a debate and was ignored (looks weak). Biden said “let’s debate” and Trump accepted. No one ever accepted Trump’s debate on Fox, so rejecting it actually makes Biden look more powerful.
Pretty sure what the guy above is saying is that no one cares (on the right) cares about what was accepted. He’s saying Trump can just say it was Oct 2 and everyone will eat it up. And if Biden doesn’t show up, Trump will say “Biden weak” and everyone will eat it up. No one (on the right) will care that Trump just made up a new date and terms.
Mmmmmmmm . . . are there?
Yesssssss. It’s about looking powerful. These are people who drive big trucks and don’t use them. A powerful image is important to them.
They value hierarchy and rules that don’t apply to them. Without anyone who plays along, they don’t feel good. They need someone to be upset at their giant Trump flag or there’s no point to it.
Completely agree.