Donald Trump’s Debate Strategy Is Centered Around His ‘Tough Guy’ Persona, Report Says

A Sunday report from Axios claimed that Donald Trump’s strategy for Tuesday’s debate against Joe Biden is to lean into his “tough guy” persona.

According to the publication, Trump has been testing attacks for the debate on the campaign trail over the preceding weeks to see what works best with his crowds. Notably, campaign advisers believe that the “tough guy” persona plays well with voters in states critical for the president’s re-election.

The Axios report also claimed that Biden is susceptible to some of Trump’s common attacks against him, including going after his son, Hunter, or criticizing his mental acuity. As for the former, the U.S. leader is allegedly planning on launching a brutal attack on Hunter from the debate stage. The former vice president’s son has notably come under scrutiny for his alleged dealings with Ukraine and China.

According to The Washington Post, the Democrat’s allies are worried about the “debate onslaught” that Trump is allegedly preparing for the event.

“The president is so eager to lay into his rival that he has called aides to test out various attacks, focusing on broadsides that cast Biden as a longtime Washington insider with a limited record of accomplishment, said another adviser, who like many interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe private talks,” the report read.

Reports of such preparation have supposedly pushed Biden’s allies to prepare for a “venomous barrage” that could take focus away from the Biden campaign’s plans to hone in on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

John Morgan, a major Biden donor and Florida trial lawyer, is worried that Trump’s focus on the presidential candidate’s family could pull the rug from underneath the Democrat.

“When you go at his family, he becomes hotter than hell, which is part of the thing I worry about,” he said.

Morgan continued to warn that Biden needs to be “careful” not to let his temper get the best of him.

As The Inquisitr reported, Republican strategist Rick Wilson claimed that the 2016 debate tactics Trump used against Hillary Clinton will fall flat against Biden. While Wilson believed that Biden is more likely to react to Trump’s aggressive tactics with the same, he also suggested that the lack of an audience for the event will undermine the head of state’s purported strategy.

Despite months of focus on Biden’s mental fitness, Trump has recently been praising his opponent’s debate skills and long political career as part of a strategy to raise expectations for the Democrat ahead of the debate.