I always have to remember Donald Trump is first and foremost a salesman, one of the best around. He even wrote a book four decades ago, “The Art of the Deal.” The main phrase in the trade is: ABC: Always Be Closing. Meaning “closing the deal,” in this case with American voters.
Pundits like me look at the issues, as I did in my previous column, “Trump-Harris Debate Aftermath: The Serious Issues Barely Came Up.” But there also is context – that is, what’s really going on in the households, neighborhoods and cities of America.
Voters want to know, “Should I ‘buy’ this candidate?” “Will this ‘product’ solve my problems the way Alka-Seltzer solves my indigestion? In that context, the polls and the post-debate punditry, including my own lamentations, don’t matter.
Trump obviously is a known “product.” He’s dominated American politics for more than nine years now. Everybody knows who he is, and what he stands for and what his policies are, and were.
His main selling propositions are: Inflation is destroying family incomes. Illegal immigration is destroying communities. He sums it up with the old Reagan 1980 slogan: Are you better off than you were four years ago?
By contrast, Kamala Harris is a newcomer. She was kept in the background throughout the Biden administration until he dropped out of the 2024 race. Ironically, although she is the incumbent, she’s selling herself as the “new” candidate, and Trump as the quasi-incumbent, whose policies failed. She’s the shiny new car brand, while he’s the brand that turned out to be a lemon. That Trump is a danger to freedom here and abroad, would hurt women and impede progress.
Let’s see how each did in the Sept. 10 debate.
First, Trump. A lot of conservatives attacked the moderators for making it three people – them and Harris – against Trump. But look how it started. The first question, by ABC’s David Muir:
So let's get started. I want to begin tonight with the issue voters repeatedly say is their number one issue, and that is the economy and the cost of living in this country. Vice President Harris, you and President Trump were elected four years ago and your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, are you better off than you were four years ago? When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?
That basically gave the debate to Trump. Harris began:
So, I was raised as a middle-class kid. And I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America. I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people. And that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy.
Then some programs: tax credits for children and start-up businesses. And:
My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations, which will result in $5 trillion to America's deficit. My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump sales tax, which would be a 20% tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month.
She was forceful and convincing. Trump throughout was a little rough, maybe tired from all those rallies and interviews. But she didn’t answer: “When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?”
She should have said:
Unemployment is at rock bottom. The stock market is surging. Everything is fine. My Inflation Reduction Act has cut inflation to a minuscule 0.2% in August. And earning power rose faster than that. That means more take-home dollars for families. It’s morning in America!
If Trump can grab Reagan’s 1980 slogan, “Are you better off than you were four years ago,” Harris ought to have grabbed the Gipper’s 1984 slogan, “It’s morning in America.” Make ads like this from 1984.
Americans want a president who makes them feel safe and prosperous, not a prosecutor who wants to put the other candidate in jail under the slogan, “For the People.”
Trump: Inflation, Inflation, Inflation
By contrast, Trump mentioned “inflation” 21 times:
When I had it, I had tariffs and yet I had no inflation. Look, we've had a terrible economy because inflation has -- which is really known as a country buster. It breaks up countries. We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before. Probably the worst in our nation's history. We were at 21% [inflation the past four years]. But that's being generous because many things are 50, 60, 70, and 80% higher than they were just a few years ago. This has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, but for every class….
I had no inflation, virtually no inflation, they had the highest inflation, perhaps in the history of our country because I've never seen a worse period of time. People can't go out and buy cereal bacon or eggs or anything else.
And so on.
Harris mentioned inflation just two times. She shied away from it:
Sixteen Nobel laureates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation and by the middle of next year would invite a recession. You just have to look at where we are and where we stand on the issues. And I'd invite you to know that Donald Trump actually has no plan for you, because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you….
I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States. And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking. My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.
That second reference on “inflation” actually was to the Inflation Reduction Act, whose total cost last year rose to more than $1 trillion – itself pumping up inflation. And how many Americans even know what Nobel laureates are?
On inflation, Harris never answered: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Here’s one of Trump’s anti-inflation ads.
Immigration Is Trump’s Trump Issue
Immigration was Trump’s other big issue. After his first comments on inflation, he jumped the gun and immediately started selling his position on immigration:
On top of that, we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they're coming in and they're taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics and also unions. Unions are going to be affected very soon. And you see what's happening. You see what's happening with towns throughout the United States. You look at Springfield, Ohio. You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They're taking over buildings. They're going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country. And they're destroying our country. They're dangerous. They're at the highest level of criminality. And we have to get them out.
So, right at the start, he delivered a one-two punch on first inflation, the immigration.
Later, when immigration came up as an actual question, here’s what Trump said. Remember, it’s all about ABC: Always Be Closing. Trump:
They allowed criminals. Many, many, millions of criminals. They allowed terrorists. They allowed common street criminals. They allowed people to come in, drug dealers, to come into our country, and they're now in the United States. And told by their countries like Venezuela don't ever come back or we're going to kill you. Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down? You know why? Because they've taken their criminals off the street and they've given them to her to put into our country. And this will be one of the greatest mistakes in history for them to allow -- and I think they probably did it because they think they're going to get votes. But it's not worth it. Because they're destroying the fabric of our country by what they've done. There's never been anything done like this at all.
Harris’ response didn’t answer any of that. Instead, she turned to his criminal conviction. Which everybody in the country has processed by now, along with the other cases against him. Either you think he’s guilty, or you think he’s being railroaded. But what’s that got to do with immigration? Harris:
Well, I think this is so rich. Coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing. And let's be clear where each person stands on the issue of what is important about respect for the rule of law and respect for law enforcement. The former vice president called for defunding, federal law enforcement, 45,000 agents, get this, on the day after he was arraigned on 34 felony counts. So let's talk about what is important in this race. It is important that we move forward, that we turn the page on this same old tired rhetoric. And address the needs of the American people, address what we need to do about the housing shortage, which I have a plan for. Address what we must do to support our small businesses. Address bringing down the price of groceries. But frankly, the American people are exhausted with the same old tired playbook.
But what about the immigration situation? She basically ceded Trump’s second plank, on immigration, to him.
Trump: Are your new Venezuelan gang neighbors making life better than it was four years ago?
Harris: I’m a former prosecutor and Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts.
Meanwhile, although inflation is down, it’s still 20% higher than four years ago. And Venezuela right now is sending more gang members to your city. That’s one reason Hispanics are supporting Trump more this time. Like everybody, they don’t want gangs moving in next door.
Are you better off than you were four years ago?
Everyone remains mute on the fact that the national debt has been increasing by a trillion dollars about every 100 days.
Trump failed to keep the two promises I voted for him to keep in 2016. They were both well within his authority as president. He promised to bring our troops home from the 800 foreign bases they are staged on in 80 countries, well within his authority as commander in chief. He promised to jail Hillary and failed to because she had 'been through so much' and, more recently, because she was the secretary of state. I will never vote for him, a baldfaced liar, again.
I was planning on voting for RFK Jr. if he got on the ballot in Wyoming, which he did. Wyoming has removed him from its ballot by his own request.
I'm probably not going to vote any more because it has been made pointless.