It was ugly. It was silly. It was insensitive and rude.

And that’s just a brief summary of Donald Trump’s performance in Tuesday night’s debate.

The big question before his confrontation with Kamala Harris was which version of the eternally offended and constantly evasive ex-president would emerge.

The one who manages to hold back just long enough to convince at least some of those who are not particularly interested in politics that he is not, damn it, everything, The unreasonable?

Or the crazy, uncensored Trump who believes that facts can be molded like pottery, that reality is what he thinks it is, and that no insult is too small for him to throw at his opponent?

It was certainly the latter who made his way onto the stage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, where Trump stoked the passions of his ardent MAGA supporters but did little to reach beyond his staunch political base.

The January 6 insurrection? Not Trump’s fault.

“I had nothing to do with this other than giving a speech,” he said, lamenting the fatal shooting of rioter Ashli ​​​​Babbitt who had tried to enter the House chamber – and not saying a word about the police officers who were killed or injured in the unlawful attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump insisted that he actually won the 2020 election. There is “so much evidence,” he claimed, even though dozens of courts and his own administration’s election security experts have repeatedly dismissed his claims of widespread voter fraud as empty venting.

Regarding his claim that Harris – who is black – had only recently “turned black,” Trump said: “I read that she’s not black … and then I read that she is black, and that’s OK, both were OK with me. That’s her business.”

That was incredibly generous.

And so it went on.

President Biden secretly hates his vice president, Trump claimed. Immigrants in Ohio are kidnapping pets to get a decent meal. (Which is as absurd as it sounds.) Harris hates Jews And Trump probably wants to avoid taking sides in the conflict that has been going on for ages – even if that was not Trump’s goal.

All this bluster overshadowed Harris’s vague response to questions about her position on issues like fracking and ending private health insurance, a position that has shifted since she moved significantly further to the left during her unsuccessful 2020 presidential bid.

Trump couldn’t do anything about it, even though his bad behavior didn’t help him.

The Vice President, finally coming back down to earth after the meteoric rise that followed her inauguration as the Democratic frontrunner, landed in Philadelphia with a few things to take care of.

One way was to gently distance herself from President Biden. She tried to do this by pointing out – irrefutably – that she is not, in fact, President Biden. (It’s not that simple, though.)

Another goal was to develop her policy portfolio, which she did to some extent, addressing proposals such as expanded housing assistance, a $6,000 child tax credit, and a $50,000 tax break for small businesses.

Above all, Harris had to prove – as a woman, and a petite one at that – that she had the muscle and backbone to lead the country. One way to cement her position was to show strength and backbone to stand up to the brash and tyrannical Trump, which she did with ease.

It was Trump who ended the evening with a drop of sweat on his upper lip and the irritated demeanor of someone whose antagonist had clearly dug himself under his skin.

A remark about the size of the crowd – which seems to provoke the former president in a deeply Freudian way – had Trump stammering that “nobody” goes to Harris’ rallies, and fiercely rejecting her claim that his performance and the audience are thinning.

“People don’t leave my rallies,” Trump complained, insisting, despite ample evidence to the contrary, that his crowds were the largest in American political history.

She mocked his claims that he was a Midas businessman, pointing out that Trump inherited a fortune from his father, a real estate developer, and filed for bankruptcy half a dozen times.

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” Harris said of the 2020 election, “and he’s obviously having a very hard time processing that.”

She continued.

World leaders, Harris said, were laughing at Trump behind his back and calling him a disgrace.

It is hard to imagine the last time one spoke in this way to Trump, who looks after himself with a retinue of obsequious sycophants.

Given Biden’s disastrous performance, people are forgetting how badly Trump did in the June debate. Once again, he fired off a barrage of lies: about crime and illegal immigration rates; about Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s support for Harris; about China building “giant” auto factories in Mexico, stealing countless U.S. jobs; about “postpartum abortions” being carried out with the support of Democratic politicians.

(For anyone wondering what was going on, Harris made the dubious claim that not a single American soldier on active duty is in a combat zone, ignoring those who are in danger, such as in Iraq and Syria. She also took out of context Trump’s remark that if he lost the election, “a bloodbath” would begin. He was talking about the economic impact on the auto industry.)

Biden’s dismal performance has pushed him out of the presidential race. Harris’ strong performance in the debate will not have such a dramatic outcome. It’s hard to imagine her being able to gain a major boost in support. The country is simply too divided along party lines for that to happen.

But Harris certainly didn’t harm her candidacy and probably even helped herself on Tuesday evening. In a close election campaign, that has to be considered a victory.