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Trump now wants to debate

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally held with Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., August 3, 2024.

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally held with Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., August 3, 2024.

REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksAugust 08, 2024
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
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Just as the US presidential race has shifted from a Donald Trump advantage over Joe Biden to a toss-up against Kamala Harris, the former president’s debate strategy has also shifted.

Trump was eager to debate Biden on any TV network with any ground rules — for reasons that became clear when the president delivered the June 27 debate performance that ultimately ended his campaign. When Harris became his new opponent, Trump felt he was winning and had no incentive to debate. Harris insisted that Trump honor the commitment he made (to Biden) to appear at a Sept. 10 debate to be aired by ABC and threatened to show up and use the time to make a live televised speech if the GOP nominee was a no-show. Trump refused and then challenged her to debate him on Fox News before a live audience instead.

Now that the Harris campaign is surging in both national and swing-state polls, it appears Trump’s calculus has changed again.

“We’ll be debating her, I guess, in the pretty near future,” he told Fox News on Wednesday. “It’s going to be announced fairly soon, but we’ll be debating her.” The next day he told reporters that he agreed to debate Harris on Fox on Sept. 4, ABC on Sept. 10, and NBC on Sept 25. ABC has confirmed that both candidates have agreed to attend, and Harris has said she’s “looking forward” to Sept. 10. Her campaign hasn’t yet commented on the other proposed events.

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