Trump needs to reestablish momentum after perceived loss in 1st debate: experts

Republican candidate Donald Trump needs to reestablish his momentum after being perceived to have lost Monday night's first presidential debate as he allowed rival Hillary Clinton to rattle his cage and get under his skin, U.S. experts have said.

That means the Republican nominee, whose temperament is thought by many as not fit for presidency, will have to fight hard in the coming weeks if he wants to clinch the White House, the experts said.

Clinton and Trump squared off on national TV on Monday night in their first-ever one-on-one debate. Trump missed a number of opportunities in the debate, such as talking about the economy, the No. 1 issue of concern for Americans and an area in which the billionaire businessman has an advantage.

"Trump repeatedly took the bait that Clinton laid out to make Trump seem less presidential as well as bringing up questions about Trump's leadership as both a businessman and as a candidate," Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.

With Clinton's better performance, Trump needs to reestablish the momentum that he had enjoyed as he began to appear more acceptable as a candidate, Mahaffee added.

"This won't break him, as he has opportunities in the subsequent debates and enjoys the support of the GOP populist base," he said.

Indeed, with two more debates to go until Election Day in November, Trump will have time to grill Clinton on a number of scandals that continue to dog the Democratic nominee.

Those include her perceived mishandling of the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which ended in the death of a U.S. ambassador. Scandals also include Clinton's use of a personal email account and server, instead of a government-issued account, while she was secretary of state. Critics said the move compromised U.S. national security.

Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua that Clinton "won the debate by controlling the conversation and getting many more of her attack lines into the debate."

Trump barely mentioned Clinton's emails and made no mention of the Benghazi attack, West said.

"He got irritated easily and had many sighs and groans. He did not have a good answer on why he has not released his tax returns," he added.

Experts said Clinton was more polished and had better command of the facts, but Trump fans said he stuck it to Clinton a couple of times. One of those was when he said Clinton was a "typical politician," namely a good public speaker, but never delivering on her promises.

The line came at a time when Americans' trust in leaders in Washington is at a low point not seen in recent memory, and such statements are what helped Trump, a political outsider, win the Republican nomination.

Experts said more such rhetoric may have allowed Trump to avoid the perception of having lost the debate.

But despite the perception of a Clinton win, experts said Trump is not to be discounted, as he has managed to surprise the entire Washington political establishment by sparking enthusiasm in the Republican base perhaps not seen in decades, and he may still pull yet another surprise.

Some experts said Trump will have to really go on the offensive during the next two debates, bringing up the many scandals that have dogged Clinton and grilling her on the economic mess that Trump claims is the fault of her former boss, U.S. President Barack Obama.

Despite U.S. media's consensus that Clinton won the debate, the Trump campaign insists he won the debate. The real outcome of the debate will be known once the post-debate polls come out in the coming days.

(APD)