He went on to accuse ABC of running an “unfair” event, with biased moderators.
Despite his best efforts, the former president’s performance on the debate stage was still interpreted, even by his allies in the US media, as an embarrassment.
Ms Harris’s attempts to rile him up with jibes about the size of the crowds at his rallies and his unpopularity with world leaders worked a charm.
“You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about ‘windmills cause cancer’,” she said.
“And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.” She said he had been “fired by 81 million people” at the last election, and said other world leaders thought he was a “disgrace”.
In reply, Trump mangled his best attack lines, looked rattled on camera, and waffled about migrants eating the pets of Americans in Ohio.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he said.