Recently, Donald Trump challenged Joe Biden to additional presidential debates. He wrote to the Commission on Presidential Debates, urging the organization to move up the timeline for the planned debates and to increase the number of faceoffs the two candidates have before Election Day.

If I were Donald Trump, I wouldn’t be optimistic about getting Joe Biden into the debate “ring.” Biden’s own Department of Justice just admitted Biden is “an elderly man with a poor memory,” and for this reason, I just don’t see him participating in any debates this time around, and if he does, it will be heavily controlled, and a once and done event. If he doesn’t participate at all, Biden will probably rationalize it by claiming that the spurious indictments of Trump from the Biden Justice Department, or various Democrat hacks in the states, make it “inappropriate” for him to debate Trump.  

Of course, if Donald Trump really wants a presidential debate, he can still have one (or more). Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already made several states’ ballots. So has Cornel West. Both men are leftists, and both would jump at the chance to gain the attention of the nation in a debate with Trump.

Let’s go back in presidential history. In 1980, Democrat Jimmy Carter, burdened by a horrific economy and foreign chaos amid American weakness, chose not to participate in the first presidential debate, claiming that he wasn’t willing to include John Anderson, an Independent, who had made the ballot. So, Republican Ronald Reagan debated Anderson alone. They placed an empty chair for Carter, which made his absence even more notable to the television audience.  

Participating in the first debate in 1980 certainly helped Reagan, and probably did not help Carter: 

In a Gallup poll conducted shortly before the debate, 61% of registered voters said Carter should not boycott the debate, while just 25% said he should.  According to the Gallup news article at the time, "Large majorities of registered Republicans and independents were critical of the president's decision.  And while opinion was more evenly divided among Carter's fellow Democrats, 48% disapproved of his decision and only 38% approved."  Although Anderson relished the opportunity to debate, the scenario may have been most beneficial to Reagan.  With Carter not there to rebut him, and Reagan publicly welcoming Anderson's participation, the event gave Reagan ample opportunity to convey his conservative philosophy and to come across as a kinder, less defensive candidate. 

Carter ended up participating in the second debate. Not that it helped him in the end.

If Donald Trump is confident in his ability to debate and confident that he can make a good contrast with the two more left-leaning candidates, then I would advise him to repeat this Reagan political strategy from 1980. Kennedy and West are going to promote their economic positions, which are largely identical to Joe Biden’s, which have led to the current economic mess and inflation. Both are also advocates of woke policies that are far out of the mainstream. Both are also generally appeasers when it comes to foreign policies (although West more so than Kennedy).  

Perhaps most importantly, no one really believes either of those two other candidates can actually win the Presidency. This should incline most swing voters watching the debate to focus more of their attention on Donald Trump, the one man on the stage who does have a very good chance of winning the Presidency.  

And does anyone care what the Commission on Presidential Debates thinks? If they don’t agree to schedule a debate, too bad. If Donald Trump offers a debate to Kennedy and West, whether on Fox or X/Twitter, the other candidates will come.  

In the debate, Donald Trump should focus much of his attention on Joe Biden and how Biden is both unwilling and unable to defend his own record as president. Because, to repeat, as even the Department of Justice said, Biden is old and senile and not up to another term as president. Trump should stress that this tough world needs a tough man to preside over the U.S. and to Make America Great Again. It needs the guy who made the economy hum from 2017 to 2019 (minus COVID, which no one blames Trump for) to do it again. It needs the guy that scares the hell out of Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, or the Mad Mullahs of Iran, and who will push for America First and not let the rest of the world play the U.S. for a sucker, as is currently happening.

And, once again, Trump’s closing statement on the debate stage is self-evident:

The American people need to ask themselves some questions. Are we better off now than we were five years ago? Is it easier for us to go and buy things in the stores than it was five years ago? Is it cheaper for us to buy gas for our cars? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do we feel that we are as safe, secure, and as strong as we were five years ago? And can Joe Biden, the guy who can’t remember what he did yesterday, struggles to speak and walk, be the president who is going to take us back to those better days? The answer to all of these questions is “no.” I am the only candidate who can bring us back to where we want to go. That is why I am running — to Make America Great Again.

Just who on that stage is even going to dispute this?  

Adam Turner is a national security and political professional, with over two decades of experience on the campaign trail, and on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.