The highly anticipated debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was generally interpreted as a Trump victory for Trump supporters and a Harris victory for Harris supporters. However, there are those on the Trump side who are disappointed, say Trump has been defeated or have turned their anger toward the moderators due to their closeness to Harris and have gone into defense mode for Trump. On the Harris side, satisfaction and certainty of victory are more evident.

In my opinion, the most fundamental reason for this is that, instead of the well-known characteristics of Trump that we have witnessed since the 2016 debates and throughout the rallies and press conferences that followed until today, who behaved as he felt and immediately reflected what he thought, showed his confidence in the superiority of his arguments and his intelligence and who occasionally cornered his opponent with salvos, we saw Trump stripped himself of all these qualities and reflected his tenseness and conditioning in his oft-repeated arguments.

Trump, who initially ran to his corner to avoid shaking hands, eventually shook hands with Harris when she insisted on approaching him. This image was ridiculed by the pro-Harris MSNBC as "she literally has to corner him" to shake his hands, which was true. Afterward, he did not look at Harris’ face even once during the entire debate. Harris looked at him and said "you" while making her accusations, while Trump avoided eye contact. This was a shocking image and an incredible strategic mistake, considering the profile Trump has drawn so far. At his rallies, Trump constantly said that Harris avoided even appearing before reporters, could not give interviews, could never stand up to influential leaders and that he was strong. Here, Harris looked confident and made attacks, while Trump appeared unable to confront her. Thus, Trump canceled one of his most prominent arguments. This is the most fundamental element that makes Harris stand out.

But she was only "one" step ahead. Otherwise, this was not a debate that would end Trump’s career as Chuck Schumer claimed or destroy him as argued on Rachel Maddow’s show. Although Harris gained an appearance of superiority from Trump’s unexpectedly defensive attitude, she also remained weak by being unable to respond to many points. Right at the beginning of the debate, when asked whether Americans were better than four years ago, she gave an irrelevant answer by saying that she was from the middle class; in other words, she could not give any answer.

Moreover, even her supporter, CNN, found this strange. She claimed that Trump sold chips to China that met their needs. Trump responded by saying that he did not sell it, China bought it from Taiwan, the U.S. could not produce the necessary products anyway, and this was due to Harris' philosophy. Harris could not respond to this either other than shifting facial expressions. She claimed that Trump was against in vitro fertilization (IVF). It is known that this is false because Trump clearly showed his support for it in the program he had with Tulsi Gabbard, who had explained her IVF application shortly before the debate, and he immediately denied Harris during the debate. Harris could not insist on her claim or provide evidence.

Harris also brought up the generals who worked with Trump and then spoke against him. Trump said that he fired those who did a bad job, and those who were fired got angry and spoke out against him, but this had to be done for the country, and the Biden-Harris administration did not fire anyone despite the disgrace of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the bad picture of the economy. Harris could not make a statement defending themselves at this point either.

Even about Jan. 6, 2021, during the Congressional storming, where Trump was most pressed, Harris performed poorly. When asked about this issue, Trump said that he offered to send 10,000 security personnel, but Nancy Pelosi, one of the leaders of the Democrats, refused it, and that was why the incident occurred. It is known that he has always responded to the issue with this answer. Despite this, Harris could not say much other than that Trump incited the crowd. For someone who listened to the conversation between the two impartially, it appeared that Pelosi was fundamentally at fault for the incident happening in this way. However, on Aug. 1, Trump was given an even harder time by an ABC reporter when he was interviewed by three Black female journalists at an event organized by the National Association of Black Journalists, and people laughed at him. Some of Trump’s supporters also demanded that he fire his advisers who arranged the interview.

During the campaign, the Biden-Harris side on the issue of illegal immigration was saying that they had come up with a proposal to solve the problem but that Trump had gotten his friends in Congress not to pass the resolution. This also came up in the debate. As he said in his rallies, Trump said that there was no need for this and that she could solve the issue by going to the White House now and signing a resolution closing the border. Harris did not respond to this either.

Harris claimed that all world leaders were laughing at Trump. Trump quoted Victor Orban's words praising him and saying that he needed to be brought in to end the wars. He also claimed that he started collecting money from NATO members while the U.S. was not getting any money, and that's why they didn't like him and liked weaklings like Harris who couldn't get money. Moreover, he claimed that he stopped the Nord Stream project of Russia, but Biden made sure it continued when he came to power. Harris didn't respond to any of this.

One of Harris’ accusations was that Trump loves dictators and wants to be a dictator and that dictators want him elected. Trump responded to this by reminding Putin to officially declare his support for Harris. He also questioned the democracy of the situation by stressing that Biden had 14 million votes to become his party’s candidate while Harris had zero votes. Harris did not respond to these either.

Then, the subject came to Ukraine. Harris told Trump, Putin will eat you for lunch. As Trump began to respond, he warned Harris, who tried to say something more in a low voice, "Please be quiet," and Harris remained silent. This moment was proof that if Trump had been offensive rather than defensive, he could have made Harris look bad. Trump continued to explain that Harris’ meeting with Zelenskyy had failed because "she spoke weakly and stupidly and was a bad negotiator" and that Putin had started the invasion after she left. Finally, Harris did not remain silent and attempted to respond, but she could not explain much about why they could not prevent it.

Trump's closing remarks are seen by his supporters as his most popular moments of the debate. Here, Trump again asked, "So she just starting by saying she's gonna do this, she's gonna do that, she's gonna do all of these wonderful things. Why hasn't she done it?" and Harris remained silent again?

Most importantly, Harris does not have a convincing explanation of the bad situation in the economy, especially inflation, and this is accepted even by various media that support Harris. In fact, in the poll published after the debate on CNN, it was seen that when asked who would do the economy better, those who said Trump increased from 53% to 55%, while those who said Harris decreased from 35% to 33%. It is also possible that this poll was perhaps the most shared by Trump supporters after the debate. In short, Harris' inadequacy is observed as the No. 1 issue for voters.

After seeing all this, it is impossible for me to accept the claim that Harris won a clear victory in the debate. It can only be argued that she gained a one-step advantage with her more active appearance. Indeed, even on MSNBC, which propagandizes that Harris won an incredible victory, comments were made that the election would be very close. Similarly, on CNN, analyses were published stating that the debate did not shift voters and that it was doubtful that it would affect the election.

On the other hand, not being able to confront Harris was humiliating for Trump. This is the most prominent issue that many people have highlighted for the entire debate. In contrast, some people bring up his last debate with Biden as an example. However, he looked at Biden’s face from time to time in there, and Biden's very weak and old appearance, which sometimes had difficulty even forming sentences, was a difference in itself. Trump's arrogant mockery of Harris is now something to laugh at.

Indeed, instead of explaining the problems caused by illegal immigrants with a more concrete and difficult-to-answer example, his claim that they started eating dogs was also a serious source of ridicule. This issue was criticized even by Megyn Kelly, one of Trump's biggest supporters, and those on her program. Even in some articles on pro-Trump Fox News, it is seen that Trump's relatively passive and poorly prepared state was effective in defending Harris's victory. And if the polls are correct, Harris is ahead in most of them, as she was before the debate. Trump couldn’t change that. It should be noted, though, that he has the upper hand in a small number of polls.

Still, more than 50 days are left after the debate, and a lot more can happen.