Just my gut feeling but I think Trump allowed this debate farce to happen again on purpose. I suspect he told his people to go along with whatever the commission wanted. Gave them all the rope they would take knowing they would overreach. And he attended but refused to act the way they wanted him to.
He exposed their hypocrisies and now refuses to go along with the even more ludicrous idea of a debate they planned for #2. The left can say anything they want to about that but it’s all hot air. He blew their whole scheming operation up.
To bolster my speculation; he blew up the Press Club insult fest in much the same way. What they said to Sarah Huckabee-Sanders to her face was absolutely vile and everyone saw them for what they are.
There is a lot about Trump that people take issue with. His combativeness. His propensity to just wade into a fight. His tagging of his enemies with nicknames that stick, no matter how they struggle to escape the moniker. His broad streak of braggadocio, and his forays into clownish improvisation.
And lest I forget, his utter public disregard for the vilification, vituperation, and venom of his opponents, which is literally (not figuratively-LITERALLY) driving them out of their minds. He is making them crazy in the most luscious and wonderfully satisfying way-by simply not allowing their words to hurt him. He is human like everyone, and takes personal exception, no doubt. But in public, he gives their criticism not even the time of day, which to them is the equivalent of two giant middle fingers in their direction. The Left hates...HATES to their very core being discounted and ignored.
All those things.
But I fully appreciate every one of those aspects, even his hilariously mocked speech syntax by the comedians who hate him.
Deep down, I suspect he loves it when they mock him, because he knows he has gotten under their skin.
I like all these things about him, because it shows me how flawed he is, and how he is determined to never let his flaws hold him back. He is probably the most unscripted, un-focus tested, loose cannon of an excuse for a politician, and they can't figure out how to destroy him.
I once heard of Ronald Reagan that he was "comfortable in his own skin". I get that same thing from Trump. He could give a rat's ass if people don't like that he eats junk food or drinks soda. Or if people don't like his skin tone, hair style, syntax of speech, or his long ties.
For people who abhor sheep-like behavior, focus-tested commentary, and political correctness, President Trump is the answer to those. In Spades.
That is why we voted for him in 2016, and why many of us will walk over broken glass to do it again this coming November.