President Donald Trump has a long history of not preparing. He infamously refuses daily intelligence briefings – opting instead to have them on average once a week. His gross mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic is infamous – and due to lack of preparation and lack of listening to scientists.
Trump rarely follows the advice of the experts he has at his disposal, both as a sitting U.S. president and as the head of the Republican Party engaged in a challenging re-election campaign.
Now we learn Trump is eschewing the advice of political experts, and refusing “traditional debate prep” for the presidential debates, NBC News reveals. He has not participated in a single “mock” debate session. and has no plans to. The first debate is less than three weeks away.
“The president has dismissed the typical debate preparations he participated in four years ago, joking to aides and allies that he’s been preparing for debates since he was born,” according to NBC News. “His ability to fire back at an opponent in real time, he’s argued, ‘isn’t something you have to practice.'”
Trump is instead opting for “informal discussions” with allies and top administration officials. It’s unclear if using an administration official for the specific purpose of helping him with his political campaign would be a Hatch Act violation.
Privately, the president’s allies are worried, NBC notes. They don’t “think his casual approach is a wise strategy,” and are “are expressing concern that the president’s overconfidence could backfire.”
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh disagrees, saying: “I think if you ask the president, he would say that he is preparing for debates by running the country, as president.”
The first presidential debate is Tuesday, Sept. 29 in Cleveland, Ohio.