It may seem that Trump trounced Biden in their first, and only, debate. But a cursory reading of the transcript shows that Biden self-destructed. Trump had very little to do with it. Not only that, Trump’s answers sometimes wandered aimlessly. He sounded like a loser.

In a debate with Harris, he will have to be a lot more disciplined and smarter if he hopes to do her in. For some watchers, it doesn’t seem likely that someone as undisciplined as Trump can win against a media favorite. And it wasn’t just during the debate that his answers failed to inspire confidence.

Here’s how he responded to questions asked by Maria Bartiromo, a friend, on a recent Sunday morning television show.

BARTIROMO: “Tell us about your policy plans and how they will impact the lives of American citizens.”

TRUMP: “So we’re going to have more jobs than we’ve ever had—look, we had that. Nobody ever had an economy pre-COVID. And then after COVID, we did a phenomenal job. We handed over a stock market—we would have had a depression, I believe, if I wasn’t president. A couple people are saying this very strongly—we would have had a depression like in 1929.

That was a bad thing. COVID came in, nobody knew what it was, nobody knew how to handle it. We closed it down to China. Governors then made decisions whether they wanted to keep it—actually the Republican governors made the right decisions. The Democrat governors closed everything down. It was up to them; it wasn’t up to the president as I said.”

What?!

Kamala Harris isn’t the only candidate who can toss a word salad.

Bartiromo, frustrated with Trump, gave him a second chance.

BARTIROMO: “But you focused on lower taxes and deregulation. Tell us how that leads to job creation.”

TRUMP: “So I cut taxes more than any other president in history, more so than Ronald Reagan. We had the biggest tax cut in history. All of a– And we had business incentive cuts. And they hired people at levels that they’ve never hired before.”

Maybe, but why did businesses hire people after he cut taxes? Does Trump know? Can he explain why? If he can’t explain why, listeners can be bamboozled by Harris into thinking . . . anything. That higher taxes are good because they provide funds for government to . . . hire people and reduce unemployment.

And please, enough with the boasting that he did a better job than President Reagan. That won’t endear him to Reagan enthusiasts, who may be on the fence about voting for Trump. We Reaganauts knew Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a friend of ours. And Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan.

TRUMP continued: “As an example, Apple and other countr–companies. They had big money, billions and billions of dollars, offshore, outside of this country. You couldn’t bring it back. There was no mechanism to bring it back. And then the tax was too high. They had to pay like 50 percent tax. Who’s going to do that?”

Slow down, fella. Like, what does “You couldn’t bring it back” mean? Who couldn’t bring what back? And what does “There was no mechanism to bring it back” mean?

He finally got to the point, more or less: “And I made it so they could bring the money back. I made it much simpler, and I also reduced the tax [finally!]. And the billions of dollars came pouring back into our country. And they were spending the money.”

Okay (for those still paying attention), he finally got to the point. But look at the wasted time—and all that salad.

And how about giving the congressional Republicans some credit—he’ll need them if he’s going to get anything done . . . if he gets reelected.

He went on (but remember that the question was how lowering taxes and deregulation would lead to jobs):

TRUMP: “So, here’s what we’re doing: we’re going to get the first thing—we’re going to get energy way down. Drill, baby, drill. All right? We’re going to get energy way down. That’s going to lead to uh, the inflation.”

Wait, what?

Does he mean he’s going to reduce regulations that hamper drilling, and that that will lead to more employment in the oil business? If so, why didn’t he say that? But what about employment in other parts of the economy?

Then, “What’s killed this country more than anything in the last three and a half years is inflation, inflicted upon this country by Sleepy Joe Biden. The inflation has been a disaster in this country, and it’s killed the middle class. It’s killing the working class, and we’re going to get inflation brought down. We have to bring prices down.”

Maybe—but that wasn’t the question, Yes, inflation has to be brought down, but what sent it up? If Trump can’t describe how Biden’s policies drove inflation up, why should anyone in the undecided camp think he knows how to get inflation down?

BARTIROMO: “How do you do that? How do you get inflation down?” Softball question!

TRUMP: “If we bring energy down, other things are going to follow.”

Well, that simply isn’t right. Does Trump know what causes inflation? If not, he should be tutored.

That was a not-to-be-missed opportunity to slam Biden and Harris for their gargantuan spending spree, and most especially the $740 billion Biden-Harris “Inflation Reduction Act,” for which Harris cast the tie-breaking vote. She herself, as Vice President, Kamala Harris, she caused the inflation! Say it out loud! Say it twice!

One of the events that is likely to follow this sentence, “If we bring energy down, other things are going to follow” is Trump’s loss to Harris.

Trump is undisciplined and perhaps too old to change.

On the other hand, he’s not stupid. The question is, can he be made to see what needs to be done? And then do it? Or will he self-destruct, like Biden?

We’ll find out.

***

Daniel Oliver is Chairman of the Board of the Education and Research Institute and a Director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in San Francisco. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President Reagan, he was Executive Editor and subsequently Chairman of the Board of William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review.

Email Daniel Oliver at Daniel.Oliver@TheCandidAmerican.com.