Donald Trump just did something *very* smart

On debates.

Since you (probably) don’t monitor Donald Trump’s Truth Social account super closely, you may have missed this, um, missive on Wednesday:

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Weirdness of Trump’s verbiage aside (and it is SUPER weird), this is a very smart strategic gambit by the de facto Republican nominee.

Why? Because it exposes the dirty little secret in Democratic politics: Joe Biden’s team doesn’t really want him to debate Trump this fall.

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Before I get into that, it’s worth noting what a massive shift this call for debates is from Trump.

Almost two years ago — April 2022 — Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel announced that the organization would leave the Commission on Presidential Debates, the bipartisan entity historically charged with running the three presidential debates (and one vice presidential debate) during the general election.

Here’s how McDaniel explained the decision:

The Commission on Presidential Debates is biased and has refused to enact simple and commonsense reforms to help ensure fair debates including hosting debates before voting begins and selecting moderators who have never worked for candidates on the debate stage.

Today, the RNC voted to withdraw from the biased CPD, and we are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people.

That move came after months years of complaining by Trump that the moderators chosen by the CPD were biased against him.

“Chris had a tough night,” Trump tweeted about debate moderator Chris Wallace in late September 2020. “Two on one was not surprising, but fun.”

My assumption — and I think it was a fair one! — going into this election then was that Trump would never debate again.

And he didn’t in the primaries! Despite his opponents shaming him and insisting he was afraid to share the stage with them, Trump steadfastly refused to budge off of his initial position.

“The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last summer. “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”

Why the ALL CAPS? I will never understand. Also, this:

The strategy worked! The Republican debates without Trump were, largely, lifeless affairs. The remaining candidates all fought amongst themselves even as every poll conducted in the race showed Trump lapping the field. They felt decidedly minor — and inconsequential.

Which brings us to the coming general election when Trump, rather quickly, changed his tune.

More than a month ago, in an appearance on a conservative talk radio show, Trump said this: “I’d like to call for, immediately, debates. I’d like to debate [Biden] now because we should debate. We should debate for the good of the country.”

Biden quickly shot the idea down. “Well, if I were him, I’d want to debate me too,” he said. “He’s got nothing else to do.”

Which, kind of a weird response — but ok!

At the time, Biden had more cover. Trump was still FAR from securing the required delegates to be the Republican nominee and Nikki Haley was running an active race against him.

Fast forward to today, however, and that is no longer the case. Trump, like Biden, will almost certainly cross the delegate threshold to be the nominee next week. Every other Republican contender has dropped out. The general election, has, for all intents and purposes, started.

And yet, the Biden position hasn’t changed. Asked about Trump’s debate challenge Wednesday, a Biden campaign spokesman said only: “That’s a conversation we'll have at the appropriate time in this cycle.”

Um, ok.

The most pro-Biden way to read his demurrals on Trump’s debate challenges is that the incumbent doesn’t want the challenger dictating the pace of the race. Under that reading, the Biden team is essentially saying to Trump: We’ll talk debates when we are good and ready — and not a second before.

But, I don’t really think that’s what’s behind the refusal on the part of the Biden team to engage Trump on the debate over debates.

Here’s why: We KNOW that the Biden inner circle has purposely limited his public role — as president and, especially, as a candidate — due to concerns that he would say or do something that would affirm voters’ preconceived notion that he is too old for the job.

As the New York Times wrote last month:

Aides have President Biden take the shorter stairs to board Air Force One. When it comes to news conferences, they yell loudly — and quickly — to end the questions, sometimes stealing a classic awards show tactic and playing loud music to signal the conclusion of the event. And forget about regular interviews with major news publications, including a traditional presidential sit-down on Super Bowl Sunday.

Over the years, some of Mr. Biden’s key aides have gone from letting “Joe be Joe” to wrapping a presidential cocoon around him that is intended to shield him from verbal slips and physical stumbles.

They can’t protect Biden from all potential dangers, of course. He is required, constitutionally, to deliver tonight’s State of the Union speech to Congress, for example.

Which represents a risk. It’s a speech that’s likely to last more than an hour — and have millions and millions of people watching.

I talked about why I think this may be the most important speech of Biden’s political career today on my YouTube channel:

But, a speech — even one like the State of the Union — can be practiced. And you are reading from a teleprompter. Yes, there’s always the possibility of a verbal stumble or a senior moment but it’s not super high.

A general election debate, on the other hand, is a high-wire act for ANY politician but especially for Biden.

There’s NO script to stick to in a debate. You have to think on your feet — and quickly. And debating Trump, who interrupts, bullies and just, well, says stuff adds to the challenge.

Now, it’s worth noting that I thought Biden held his own in the general election debates — there were only two of them — against Trump in 2020. (The first debate, if you remember, was an utter debacle — for both candidates.)

But, that was four years ago. And Biden has visibly slowed since then. And the concerns people have over his age have grown HUGELY over that time. Which means that any stumbles — verbal or otherwise — will play into the notion that he’s just too old for the job.

Given all of that, I think the Biden people would have been perfectly happy if Trump had said he would never debate in 2024 because the moderators were too biased against him (or something).

They could let the story be that Trump refused to debate — and move on. But, Trump’s calls for debates put the ball firmly in Biden’s court, which is a problem.

Because now the Biden team has to be the one to find a way to kibosh the debates, rather than just blaming Trump. Are there ways to do that? Sure! They could say the logistics never worked out. Or that they couldn’t agree on moderators. Or that debating Trump is impossible because he just lies and lies.

But, the point is that the onus is now on Biden and his team to wriggle out of the debates. Which is not the place they want to be.

Who knows? Maybe the Biden people decide it’s worth the risk and we get three debates like in the old days. But I wouldn’t count on it.