How will Trump come off in the debates?

[WVdemocrat]

The debates will be devastating and Trump will lose bigly in the general, buh-lieve me!

He'll probably have some sort of a meltdown and it will be beautiful.

[Fargobison]

Trump can't win a debate on policy. If he wins, it'll be purely on name calling and general BS rhetoric that has no real substance....just general statements (aka, his usual lies).

That said, even if he loses, none of his supporters will care.

That's what mystifies me. What exactly DO his supporters care about?

His core cult only cares about Trump, he is their God-king. He could come out for open borders and full on amnesty and they would praise it as being some amazing 3D chess move.

[RINO Tom]

Like a psycho who's totally ignorant on policy, and it likely will have zero effect on anything.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Probably the same Donald Trump we've all become accustomed to for the last year, he'll probably try the same primary debate tactics on Clinton.

[Lyin' Steve]

Reagan was intellectually lazy, and he demolished Carter because the debates aren't quiz shows.  His "There you go again!" line was devastating.  It took a minimal amount of intellectual effort and policy wonkishness to deliver, and it ended Carter's chances for re-election; he was in it up until that debate.

This is very unfair to Reagan as he followed up "there you go again" with a succinct policy justification for the position Carter was critiquing him for.  Yes, Trump could have given the same snappy retort and followed it up with something vapid like "I will not dismantle Medicare, I will make it stronger and better than ever before" but to call Reagan intellectually lazy based on this debate answer is quite incorrect.  I don't know what more you would ask of him than what he said.

For reference, the exact quote is:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Now whether this is perfectly honest is an entirely different question.  After all, those old Reagan records were basically "this bill will takes us down the same path to socialism that the Soviet Union went down."

[IceSpear]

Trump fed off the crowd in the primary debates. Considering he's a reality TV star, it's not surprising he knows how to play to a crowd. I think he'll be in big trouble without audience feedback and a single serious opponent.

[BlueSwan]

If they had an actual debate, Trump would get crushed and would look like the know-nothing idiot that he is. Unfortunately, the presidential debates aren't debates at all. Remember how Sarah Palin got through her "debate" with Uncle Joe doing all canned lines? How many saw her as the winner despite being dumber than a brick wall?

The debates are a real danger to Hillary because we don't know how she would react to Trumps crazy verbal assualts on her. Of course, if they do have an actual policy debate with the moderators doing fact checking and the works, then Trump will get annihilated.

[IceSpear]

If they had an actual debate, Trump would get crushed and would look like the know-nothing idiot that he is. Unfortunately, the presidential debates aren't debates at all. Remember how Sarah Palin got through her "debate" with Uncle Joe doing all canned lines? How many saw her as the winner despite being dumber than a brick wall?

The debates are a real danger to Hillary because we don't know how she would react to Trumps crazy verbal assualts on her. Of course, if they do have an actual policy debate with the moderators doing fact checking and the works, then Trump will get annihilated.

To be fair, Palin got away unscathed because Biden's handlers neutered him by forcing him to play nice to avoid looking sexist.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

IIRC Trump never benefited from any of the debates in the primary. Fiorina crushed him in the second(?) one on his casino business.

[egalitt]

If he is not allowed to use a teleprompter, there is only one trick left :
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx5pbsO6XUI