Selectively edited, exploded by well-funded electoral machines and amplified by their supporters on social media, the two cartoons have come to define the first months of the general election, providing a punching bag for voters on both sides of the aisle.
But for the voters who could decide the outcome of the election – those who dislike the choice and don't want either man re-elected – the clamor for blame has done little to clarify the choice.
Thursday's presidential debate in Atlanta will provide a rare opportunity for both candidates to appear together on stage, unedited, and prove each other wrong in real time before a vast audience across the country. Voters making the final decision in the voting booth will have 90 minutes to find out what's truth and what's hype about the major party choices.
Advisers to both candidates are coaching their bosses to recognize the stakes and avoid the traps set by their opponents. Biden's aides want to portray a dynamic president who can seize control of the issues, take on Trump directly and hold the public to account for his accomplishments in office. Trump's advisers are coaching the candidate to focus on his issue advantages in the polls, reaffirming the image that helped him win in 2016: a tough businessman ready to disrupt Washington.
“If the former president focuses on issues that Americans care about — immigration, crime, high household bills, inflation — he's going to win,” said David Urban, a former Trump campaign adviser and Republican strategist. “If he focuses on past elections and personal grievances, that probably won't serve him very well.”
Others have further defined Trump's goal at the event as being to downplay the short-tempered, angry leader Biden portrays.
“I think what Donald Trump wants to do is make this an issue of why he was a better president than Joe Biden and would also be a better president,” said Jim McLaughlin, a longtime Trump pollster. “It's an issue of vision. He can give a bunch of examples and real stories of how he brought peace to the Middle East, kept inflation down, secured the border, kept people safe.”
Kate Bedingfield, a former communications adviser to Biden, agreed that the most obvious path forward for Trump is to avoid the fiery tirades that tarnished him after they first met on the campaign trail in 2020. Biden's operation is preparing for change, and Biden can overcome it by appearing aggressive, she said.
“The goal for Biden is to go on the offensive and press Trump at his weakest point,” she said. “There's a lot of hope that we'll see a disciplined Trump, but even if that happens, Biden's chances are great.”
That has prompted both campaigns to take unusual steps in the hopes that their candidates will do something unconventional. Biden's advisers have been preparing carefully and extensively to ensure that at Camp David, the president outperforms expectations, as he did at this year's State of the Union address, demonstrating his understanding of the issues and his ability to get the job done. Faced with a candidate who has shown little interest in debate preparation, Trump's advisers have repeatedly tried to emphasize that the former president's top priority is to highlight his differences with Biden on issues such as inflation and immigration.
The structure of the showdown could also determine its outcome: Both Trump and the CNN hosts have accepted Biden's terms for the showdown: no in-studio audience, two commercial breaks and quick cutting of microphones when the candidate is not speaking.
“The Biden campaign is committed to providing a platform for the people of the United States to participate in the 2020 presidential election and to promote the people of the United States,” Biden said in a statement.
The debate will be broadcast on all major broadcast and cable television networks and will be broadcast live on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, Univision and other cable news networks at 9:00 pm ET, and will be moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump are hosting a viewing party and fundraiser on the night of the debate, with several potential vice presidential candidates expected to attend. Trump may make comments after the debate, according to an invitation obtained by The Washington Post.
The Biden campaign said Sunday it was planning 300 debate viewing parties and more than 1,600 events this week in target states, some of which will mark the second anniversary Monday of the Supreme Court's decision overturning constitutional abortion rights, a move made possible by Trump's three appointments to the court.
The Biden campaign has also increased its spending on TV and digital ads in the run up to the debate, spending more than double in mid-June from mid-May, according to AdImpact. Total spending last week was about $9.2 million, compared with almost nothing by the Trump campaign, according to AdImpact.
Biden has been holed up at the presidential retreat at Camp David since Thursday with nearly all of his senior staff, including former White House counsel Bob Bauer, who played Trump in debate prep sessions in 2020, and former chief of staff Ron Klain, who has led Democratic debate prep sessions for decades.
A total of 16 senior White House and campaign officials will join Biden before he leaves for Thursday's debate, according to Biden advisers, including his current chief of staff Jeff Zients, messaging and polling guru Mike Donilon, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon.
Trump has been preparing for his public appearances, including speaking to a gathering of Christian conservatives at a rally at a Philadelphia arena on Saturday and a conference in Washington.
Trump mocked Biden's time spent preparing and the hosts he will be facing. “He's asleep right now because they want to keep him grounded,” Trump said in Philadelphia. “Think about it. There's no audience. It's like he's dead.”
Trump also asked supporters at the rally how they should handle Biden, suggesting he might not be taking much of his campaign's advice. “Do you want to be tough and nasty and say, 'You're the worst president we've ever had,' or do you want to be nice and calm and let him talk?” he asked. When a member of the audience suggested a “50/50” approach, Trump laughed, then answered his own question: “Be tough. Be tough.”
The Trump campaign has opted to hold more informal policy meetings in recent weeks with a range of outside allies, according to people familiar with the planning. Helping Trump prepare were Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.). Sen. Vance took part in the economics call, according to a person familiar with the meetings, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The approach mirrors the difficulties Trump's advisers faced in past elections when they tried to get him to attend traditional debate prep. People involved in the first pre-debate session in 2020 described it as a chaotic environment with very little rehearsal in practice. The campaign has taken the position that traditional preparation is not necessary this year.
“President Trump conducts countless demanding interviews and delivers lengthy standing rally speeches every week, demonstrating elite stamina,” Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said in a statement. “He does not need a staffed program.”
But there are signs that Trump is moving away from the stale caricatures he's long tried to paint his opponents as. In a recent interview on the “All In” podcast, the former president struck a different tone.
“I think he'd be a valuable debater,” Trump said on the podcast. “I don't want to underestimate him.”
