Donald Trump doesn't know why he'd rehearse for a debate when he already knows all the insults
Donald Trump is undertaking debate preparation exactly as you would expect Donald Trump to prepare for a debate: he’s mostly blowing it off.
He has been especially resistant to his advisers’ suggestions that he take part in mock debates with a Clinton stand-in. At their first session devoted to the debate, on Aug. 21 at Mr. Trump’s club in Bedminster, N.J., the conservative radio host Laura Ingraham was on hand to offer counsel and, if Mr. Trump was game, to play Mrs. Clinton, said Trump advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the debate preparations were supposed to be kept private. He declined.
Instead, Mr. Trump asked a battery of questions about debate topics, Mrs. Clinton’s skills and possible moderators, but people close to him said relatively little had been accomplished.
His position is that “I know how to handle Hillary.” Which is to say, Trump’s private debate prep probably involves running through a mental litany of personal insults he hopes to deploy. And, of course, if he’s forced to actually do any rehearsing, he has a candidate in mind:
Mr. Trump’s search so far seems to be less exhaustive: He said his daughter Ivanka could end up playing Mrs. Clinton.
“Wouldn’t she be great at that?” Mr. Trump asked. “Maybe.”
Although the creepy things he likes to say about Ivanka are different enough from the creepy things he likes to say about Clinton to make it kind of questionable how useful they’d be as debate prep.