Perhaps Trumps plan was to take over the news cycle with talk about him, instead of giving the media a chance to come up with something about how Hillary is wonderful.
I think he needed to have the post-debate conversation be a positive one for him. For example, I thought he should have pressed yesterday’s outstanding “term limits” announcement at every turn. Every topic that came up could be circled back to “Career politicians caused this whole mess. My proposal would begin to drain that swamp”
This isn’t the headline he needed. I don’t think it’s a death knell but it’s just not what he really needed.