Trump's forum didn't go well

Editor's Note:

Scott Jennings, a CNN contributor, is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and a former campaign adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell.

He is a partner at RunSwitch Public Relations in Louisville, Kentucky.

Follow him on Twitter @ScottJenningsKY.

The opinions expressed in this comment are yours.

See more opinion pieces at CNNe.com/opinion.

(CNN) -

Donald Trump's forum on ABC News didn't go well, although I give him credit for accessing a road game on hostile terrain.

The president had some decent moments in Philadelphia on Tuesday, but the event showed that he is simply better at a boxing debate with an opponent than at addressing individual voters in a "forum" format.

Not that all the negative interactions were his fault.

This was billed as a conversation with "undecided" voters, which is charitably silly.

Most of the questions were hostile, and several of the interrogators clearly have no intention of voting for Trump.

Actually, this is a larger question about the American electorate: Is there really anyone who is undecided at this point?

There is no ambivalence about Trump.

Love it or hate it.

And some people who love him are going to vote against him, because they are exhausted.

And some people who hate him are going to vote for him because they see his opposition as unhinged and ridiculous.

Trump also had to fight relentless harassment from ABC's main presenter George Stephanopoulos.

This is Stephanopoulos's work, I suppose, and Trump often says such ridiculous things that he invites stalkers.

But this format was supposed to be about Trump and the voters, and it was often about Trump and the host.

This program should not have been moderate.

If there are undecided voters, they are probably in the suburbs or, more broadly, in America's middle class.

They are people who value their work and understand economics in a very personal way.

And quite a few of them voted for Trump in 2016, emigrated from the Republican Party in 2018, and are trying to figure out what to do now.

To bring them back, Trump should view these kinds of events, including upcoming debates with Democratic candidate Joe Biden, through a narrow lens, directing his responses directly to that group.

Trump did that several times tonight, speaking of the undeniable economic success he was having before the pandemic and public safety issues.

But the president often veers off hard-to-follow tangents that would not be attractive to that group, underscoring the challenges he has with college-educated suburban voters.

He tried to have a moment of compassion for the immigrant who recently became a US citizen, but he didn't understand that his mother had died of breast cancer and not coronavirus.

On the issues, Trump probably had his best political moment when talking about bringing troops home from the Middle East.

And he definitely denied the story with an anonymous source in The Atlantic who claimed he said horrible things about American soldiers wounded or killed in battle.

He also had a pleasant response that will appeal to his type of voters when he said: “This is a great battlefield and I have a lot of forces against me.

Sometimes you don't have time to be totally, as you would say, presidential.

You have to do things.

This message will drive elites crazy and excite those who hate elites immensely.

Overall, I'm not sure this format has been helpful to Trump.

I understand why he did it (after all, his campaign was asking for additional debates early in the process), but since the questions and the moderator were too hostile, Trump couldn't find much traction.

He will get another shot on September 29 in the first debate against Biden in a format that should be better for him.

Trump needs a good national performance, as millions of voters will receive their ballots soon and the pressure on him in two weeks will be enormous.

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