Donald Trump’s performance in the first presidential debate has been met with mixed reviews by Republicans. Some have criticized the GOP nominee for not sufficiently preparing for the 90-minute event, causing him to deliver incoherent answers and unflattering soundbites. Others have said he satisfied their expectations, but could have prosecuted the case against Hillary Clinton more effectively.
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Nonetheless, in conversations with Republican strategists who support Trump, some of whom played a role in his campaign, there seemed to be a broad consensus that the Manhattan real estate mogul can and should do better the next time he and Clinton meet on the debate stage.
Here’s the advice they offered their preferred candidate as he looks ahead to the second debate, which will follow a town-hall style format, in St. Louis, Mo. on Oct. 9:
1. Enter with a plan: In the second half of the debate, after Clinton took a hammer to Trump’s business record and accused him of concealing vital information by refusing to release his tax returns, the GOP nominee had a noticeably tougher time responding to questions in a clear and concise manner.
For instance, when the moderator, NBC’s Lester Holt, asked Trump who’s been behind cyberattacks on the U.S. and how the government should deal with future threats, he began by mentioning an endorsement he’d received earlier in the day from a union representing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers, briefly discussed the Democratic National Committee email hack, and ended by touting his son’s computer skills.
“But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing,” Trump finally concluded. “But that’s true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better, Lester, and certainly cyber is one of them.”
To avoid similar rambling answers that can confuse the audience and become fodder for his opponent, former Trump senior adviser Barry Bennett encouraged him to arrive at the next debate with a handful of issues in mind that he wishes to address and is capable of bridging to in the event they don’t get mentioned by the moderator.
“I would want him to know the 10 things that he’s going to say that night,” Bennett told the Washington Examiner. “The only thing people ever remember about these things are a good line here or there … everything else is totally lost in about 24 hours.”
“So I would rather [Trump] work on 10 really good lines about why people are voting for him and reinforce that message, than worry about responding in length to questions about his tax returns,” he added.
2. Hit Clinton harder: The most common complaint among Republicans who watched Monday’s debate seemed to be that Trump missed several opportunities to critique Clinton’s record and remind viewers of the scandals that have dogged her campaign.
“I would have liked him to talk about the emails more, Benghazi, [her] ‘basket of deplorables comment,’ the 1994 crime bill, etc.,” said Gianno Caldwell, founder of Caldwell Strategic Consulting and a conservative commentator on Fox News.
“My major constructive words for Mr. Trump would be to really pay attention to what Clinton’s record is next time around,” he added. “People are more aware of him building a wall and making Mexico pay for it than they are of anything Clinton has done. So he has to pin down that fact that she’s been in public service for almost 30 years and hasn’t accomplished much.”
3. Go beyond the questions: Transcripts from the first debate reveal that Trump never once mentioned his proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border or implement “extreme vetting” measures for immigrants coming from countries with terrorist ties. Both policies are at the core of his campaign, though he failed to remind voters of them during his 90-minutes on stage.
“It’s important for him to answer the questions being asked,” said one source who previously volunteered for the Trump campaign. “But what if he doesn’t get asked about immigration or China or the corrupt Clinton Foundation? Instead of letting those issues go ignored, he should find a way to introduce them without totally dodging [the questions].”
4. Don’t take the bait: Trump may have resisted taking a shot at Bill Clinton’s sex scandals during the first debate (he told reporters he did so out of respect for the Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea), but he failed to resist interrupting his Democratic opponent and repeatedly took her bait.
When Clinton accused him of not paying federal income taxes, Trump leaned into his microphone and said, “that makes me smart.” When she brought up decades-old comments Trump had made about the weight of a former Miss Universe pageant winner, he spent the following morning defending himself.
‘She was the worst we ever had. The worst. The absolute worst. She was the winner, and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem. We had a real problem,” he told Fox News less than 12 hours after the debate’s conclusion.
Each GOP strategist who spoke to the Examiner said it’s more likely than not that Clinton will try to set additional traps in the next debate, and they all hoped Trump would avoid them. As did many of Trump’s closest aides, who “openly expressed frustration that [he] seemed unable to stop chasing chum that Mrs. Clinton tossed at him,” the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
According to the Times, Trump’s advisers are already in the process of convincing him to practice more and adopt a new strategy ahead of the next debate. Whether he agrees and heeds the advice of those who support him will be revealed in 10 days’ time.
