Key Moments from the Harris-Trump Debate | Politico Daily Briefing

HARRIS WINS — If there’s any one word to describe the secret to Trump’s success in business and politics, it’s dominance.

In any given interaction, deal or debate, Trump relishes gaining the upper hand and relentlessly pressing his advantage, keeping his foes off-kilter and forcing them to fight on his own terms.

Last night, however, there was a dominant presence on stage in Philadelphia, and it sure wasn’t Trump.

For someone intensely mindful of stagecraft — he ranted over the weekend, after all, about the possible use of “boxes and artificial lifts” by his 5-foot-4 opponent — Trump appeared unsettled from the very first moments, when Harris nearly walked behind Trump’s lectern to force a handshake he clearly didn’t want to give.

It was a “power move,” one Harris campaign official told us, and from then on — with very few exceptions — she was able to dictate the terms of the debate. The ultimate alpha male withered in the presence of an alpha female with a plan to take him on.

Harris’s early moments (and a few others through the night, to be sure) came off as overly scripted, but she quickly figured out just how easily she could get under Trump’s skin. Talking about their respective economic plans less than 10 minutes into the debate, she mentioned how “the Wharton school has said … Donald Trump's plan would actually explode the deficit.”

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