Halloween came very early this year with a living orange Jaco-lantern trying to frighten Americans with the specter of roving Haitians petnapping and eating the dogs and cats of Springfield, Ohio’s lonely cat ladies—whether out of hunger or Voodoo, ritual is unclear. And it will remain unclear since it’s not actually happening. When faced with that inconvenient truth, he responded, “I saw it on television.” Well, that certainly settles the controversy.

This debate wasn’t a debate but a reality show. Maybe Trump’s story arc was captured by T.S. Eliot, who wrote, “In my beginning is my end.” So may it be for Donald Trump. 

His political beginning was when he came down his golden escalator (or, to be more accurate, his golden-colored escalator), spewing hate and fear towards immigrants—particularly brown immigrants from Mexico. He ranted that Mexico didn’t send their best but their rapists, drug dealers and human traffickers. That was his beginning in June of 2015.

Now, his end might come in a similar descent, from political viability to the ignominy of being a loser and a liability to the Republican Party. This descent is also characterized by xenophobia and fearmongering focused on immigrants—immigrants, still not the best of the rest of the world but the world’s rapists, murderers, and drug and human traffickers. The rest of the world, he claims, is emptying their prisons and insane asylums and shipping their problem people here. Latin America, he asserted, is virtually crime-free because their crazy criminals are here. I guess it’s time to vacation in the peaceful gang-controlled cities of Caracas, Venezuela, Sinaloa, Mexico, and Rosario, Argentina.

Before the show, the talking heads went over the ground rules. Each would speak for 2 minutes. The mics would be muted to prevent interruptions and cross-talking. All would be civil and orderly. They would cut the mic if anyone interrupted or went on too long. Well, as military leaders will tell you, the finest battle plan seldom survives past the first shot. Trump was Trump, and the poor moderators were abject failures in enforcing the rules. They must have known that rules don’t apply to The Donald. He interrupted. He refused to be guided by the questions and resisted the moderator’s modest attempts to rein him in. He spoke 6 minutes longer than Kamala. 

At first, I was upset with their inept performance until I realized that their weakness played into Kamela’s strength and Trump’s vulnerability. Kamala had wanted the mics unmuted. She was counting on Trump ranting, decompensating, and losing it. She had calculated that he couldn’t stay disciplined for 90 minutes and would go to his old tropes about immigrants invading us by the millions and spreading crime and chaos throughout our failing nation. She calculated correctly. So, even though she failed to get the rules changed officially, Trump, by dint of his boorish and entitled bullying, effectively gave her exactly what she wanted and what Trump’s advisors most feared.

To be fair, Kamala also evaded straight answers and was often unresponsive to the actual questions. She did what politicians do and answered the questions she wanted, not those asked. But she didn’t sound or look insane. Mostly, she looked bemused and showed almost a look of pity towards Trump’s little pity party.

She trolled him expertly, and he always took the bait. She invited the viewers to go to a Trump rally and see the diminishing crowds, their bored looks, and their early exits. Trump jumped at this and claimed the biggest and best crowds, and no one left early. He retorted that Kamala’s rallies were tiny; she bused people in and used AI to create pictures of the crowds. He exhibited his pettiness and insecurities (not to mention his obsession with size) for all to see and understand.

When Trump was asked a question about overturning Roe v Wade, he tried to have it both ways and take credit for keeping his promise to change the court but claimed that everyone wanted to overturn Roe—all the Republicans, Democrats, and legal scholars. This was so manifestly untrue that it didn’t need to be rebutted. Kamala instead pounced by referencing the victims of rape unable to get medical treatment. Trump said he favored choice for victims of rape or incest or for the life of the mother. She said that doctors and nurses were afraid to give medical services because they could go to prison for life. 

Trump falsely claimed that liberals and Kamala (“a Marxist child of a Marxist professor”) wanted abortions in the 9th month and even after birth. That is no one’s position, and certainly not Roe’s. Kamala said she simply wanted Roe reinstated.

While Trump questioned Kamala’s support for Israel and claimed she hated Israel, he didn’t have much of a response for what he would do about the war in Gaza or Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He just bragged that these wars wouldn’t have happened if he’d been president because foreign leaders “loved and feared him.”  His mixing of love and fear tells you much about what love means to him. Also, the tragedy of Afghanistan wouldn’t have occurred on his watch because he threatened a Taliban leader named Abdul with a photo of Abdul’s house and implied that he could take it and Abdul out at a moment’s notice.

When asked if, after claiming for 9 years to have a replacement plan for Obamacare if he had a plan now? He replied, “I have a concept of a plan.” 

Will any of this move the needle or seal the election? No. Trump MAGA voters will remain loyal. Kamala voters will be energized, and what happens in the middle with the undecided will be decisive. It is a fair and telling commentary on our system that the most important result of this reality show was the endorsement that Kamala got from Taylor Swift. She may make all the difference. A Swiftian world indeed.