Trump’s real lesson from first debate? No more Mr. Nice Guy

The mainstream media’s takeaway from Round One of the three-round Clinton-Trump title match has now solidified, and the pundit consensus is that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton successfully got The Donald’s goat, revealing his true nature as an egocentric bully and misogynist who is easily baited into trying to defend indefensibly boorish and ethically questionable behavior in his past.

{mosads}Clinton, we’re told by the cognoscenti of the press, was presidential, polished and substantive, while GOP nominee Trump was undisciplined, angry and petty. If he has any hope of recovering from this first-round pummeling, according to the conventional wisdom, he needs to prepare better on the issues, pivot away from personal attacks, and curb the hectoring, interrupting, mansplaining posture that has cost him so dearly with women voters.

It should be apparent by now that this is not a view shared by Trump himself, which should make the coming debates fascinating viewing, to say the least. In a post-mortem shortly after the debate, Trump suggested that he wouldn’t be so restrained the next time: “I may hit her harder in certain ways. I really eased up because I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.”

Since Trump has successfully flouted the consensus so far in this campaign, his contrarian perspective on what he has to do to win in the coming rounds should not be so blithely dismissed.

Trump was clearly unhappy with what he regarded as a disproportionate emphasis on 40-year-old lawsuits and 20-year-old beauty pageants, as well as the lack of attention given by moderator Lester Holt to controversies regarding Clinton’s 30,000 deleted emails as secretary of State, special access for Clinton Foundation donors to the State Department during her tenure, and the questionable wisdom of many of her decisions while secretary of State, including the debacle in Libya that continues to unfold.

He also indicated regret about failing to bring up Clinton’s role in suppressing the “bimbo eruptions” of her husband’s presidency by employing the politics of personal destruction against those who accused him of sexually predatory behavior, a scorched-earth, attack-the-victim strategy so out of keeping with current best practices.

It’s clear from his behavior on the trail this week, in which he mocked Clinton’s lack of stamina and directly raised questions about her character, that Trump does not intend to let slip any opportunities to “hit her harder” in the coming debates.

And contrary to the conventional wisdom, which holds that he should deflect every attack by pivoting directly to policy, it is not so obvious that this is a bad instinct, depending on the context. One ace that Trump has up his sleeve is that this campaign has exposed the mainstream media, to a greater extent than ever before, as blatantly (even comically) partisan in their coverage of the candidates, and their reputation as impartial arbiters of fact and truthfulness is at an all-time low if we are to believe what the pollsters tell us.

“Trump Gives Up a Lie But Refuses to Repent” was an actual headline in a recent New York Times story, and it wasn’t on the editorial page. As the media’s frustration has grown at their failure to eliminate Trump from the serious consideration of the voting public by highlighting what they regard as his beyond-the-pale statements and behavior, they have thrown aside any pretense of neutrality.

Regardless of their reservations about Trump, the electorate has duly noted the press cheerleading. Trump would do well to turn this to his advantage in the coming debates by combining his efforts to hit his opponent harder with a direct attack on the objectivity of his inquisitors. If he insists on that, making issues such as the alleged fat-shaming of a beauty pageant contestant in the ’90s the major focus of press coverage of the campaign displays an embarrassing lack of priorities to most voters concerned about the well-being of their family, community and nation, he is likely to score some serious points.

Whatever the case, grab your popcorn, because there’s little likelihood that the Republican candidate is going to follow the advice of his good friends in the mainstream media to tone it down.

Robertson is CEO of Crispin Solutions, a public affairs and communications consulting firm. He formerly served as policy director for Senate candidate Ed Gillespie’s (R) 2014 campaign and was senior policy adviser for the Joint Economic Committee.

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