OPINION:
Former President Donald Trump can win the election. In the first debate next week, he should ignore President Biden and instead focus on the viewers at home who will yearn to hear real ideas to solve the challenges in their lives. Without a studio audience, he must look into the cameras and tell Americans how he is going to make our country great again.
The issues are on his side. People across the country are concerned about high prices and jobs. They have every right to be upset. During Mr. Biden’s tenure as president, prices have gone up more than 20%. Gas prices alone have gone up by a buck a gallon in Wisconsin. Housing prices are up 43%. My son and daughter-in-law are buying their first home, and thanks to Mr. Biden, their mortgage payment will be about $1,000 more per month than it would have been four years ago under Mr. Trump. That’s real money.
High prices and jobs are concerns to more than just conservatives. In polling for Young America’s Foundation, college students ranked the economy as their top issue. Economic issues are also driving a major shift in voting patterns of Black and Hispanic voters nationwide.
All the campaign ads and paid canvassers cannot make people overlook what they see with their own eyes. Prices are up, and it costs much more just to get by since Mr. Biden took office.
At the debate, Mr. Trump should lay out his plan to get the economy going again, drive down prices, and restore domestic energy production. These are winning issues, and voters are hungry for solutions. Many of the college-educated suburban voters who strayed from Mr. Trump in 2020 can be brought back if he focuses on issues that matter to these voters and their families. Forget about Mr. Biden. Talk right to them. They know that Mr. Biden is a failure. Show them how to make America affordable again.
Voters care deeply, too, about border security. In addition to seeing the invasion happening at our southern border, people across the country can see the negative impact of an open border.
While so many veterans are living on the streets, those who illegally entered our country are living the high life in New York City hotels. Working-class voters want to help someone when they are down, but they don’t like able-bodied people coming to America and living off a government fueled by their hard-earned tax dollars.
Worst of all, the impact of an open border is felt across the country with one tragic story after another. The Biden border failure led to historic levels of drug overdose deaths from one end of the country to the other. During Mr. Biden’s tenure, Wisconsin saw more opioid-related deaths than ever in our history. Most of them were fentanyl overdoses. It is not hard to track that coming across the southern border.
On top of the dangerous drugs being smuggled over the border, many of the illegal aliens are committing horrible crimes once they get here. The most well-known recent death was the killing of Laken Riley; an illegal alien from Venezuela is charged with murder in her death. Sadly, there are many more.
Mr. Trump should talk about these victims and their families. Grieve with them and the rest of America. Then, he should spell out clear plans to make our border secure again.
Third, voters are concerned about public safety. Mr. Trump restored order with federal agents when things got out of control in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Then-candidate Joe Biden and the governor of Wisconsin — both Democrats — fueled the fire of the illegal mobs that threatened to burn the city to the ground.
On top of that contrast, radical prosecutors are letting hardened criminals back on the streets. The liberal district attorney’s office in Milwaukee County let a repeat offender who tried to run over his estranged girlfriend with his truck out on $500 cash bail. He used that truck to run down and kill six innocent people during the Waukesha Christmas parade. Americans have had it with soft-on-crime policies. Mr. Trump must lay out a clear plan to make America safe again.
No amount of drugs will be able to cover for President Biden’s obvious cognitive decline. Standing at a lectern for 90 minutes without a script or notes, where his staff cannot talk to him during commercial breaks, will reveal to most Americans that Mr. Biden cannot serve for four more years. The rules of the debate mute the microphone when the other candidate is talking. That is good news because Mr. Trump cannot save President Biden by talking over him.
Bottom line: Voters are hungry for leadership. Mr. Trump provided that during his four years as president. He should show a clear vision for how he will make America great again and let President Biden show voters why he should not be reelected. This is how Donald Trump wins the debate and the election on June 27.
• Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019.
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