A few minutes into his speech at a campaign rally on Tuesday, Donald Trump asked a question of the few thousand who’d turned up to hear him speak. “Is anybody going to watch the debate?” Body in Wisconsin, Mind in Atlanta Trump was in Racine, Wisconsin, but it was clear his mind was in Atlanta, the site of his matchup against President Joe Biden next week. He repeatedly mused about the potential scenarios, lowering expectations that he would dominate Biden and then, as if he couldn’t help himself, raising them again.
The expectations game is a particular challenge for the Trump campaign. Trump, 78, has spent months casting the 81-year-old Biden as a husk of a man who can barely walk or formulate complete sentences. Republicans have pumped out a stream of videos of Biden walking stiffly — some deceptively edited — that are meant to be proof of Biden’s decline.
Trump’s supporters in Racine showed they have been marinating in this content. “Biden can’t stand up!” one woman yelled during Trump’s speech. She stood near another woman who wore a T-shirt with a picture of Biden that read, “Impeach me.
I won’t remember.” Related Story: But Trump was also preparing for his caricature of Biden to be punctured next week. He openly wrestled with the obvious question: What if Biden clears the very low bar that Trump has now set for him? He had answers: If that should happen, it’s only because Biden will be “pumped up,” he told his followers, suggesting t.
