Vice President Harris and President Trump traded barbs about each other’s records on border control, racial division, economic policy, abortion, and at many points, Trump clearly dismissed his prepared remarks to attack Ms. Harris after she successfully goaded him and put him on the defensive. 

During the course of the debate, Ms. Harris said Trump was being laughed at behind his back by foreign leaders, that he could not be trusted to fight for the middle class, and that he would sign a national abortion ban if elected. Much of the night saw Ms. Harris successfully baiting Trump into talking about his own record, forcing him into a defensive crouch and an aggressive posture, similar to the one that turned off many voters during the first 2020 debate between Trump and President Biden. 

From his past staffing decisions to the respect he commands on the world stage to his inability to unite America, Ms. Harris was seemingly able to force Trump to forget whatever debate preparation he had done. Instead, he got personal when she launched her attacks. 

When she landed a low blow in talking about his rallies, the former president became animated and defended his crowd size.

“People start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” Ms. Harris said. “What you won’t hear him talk about is you.” Immediately after, Trump dodged a question about a much more important issue to return to crowd sizes, saying “people don’t go” to Ms. Harris’s rallies, and that he has “the biggest rallies — the most incredible rallies.”

The contest apparently went so well for Ms. Harris that her campaign announced just moments after the debate ended that the vice president was prepared for a second. “Vice President Harris commanded the stage on every single issue that matters to the American people,” Ms. Harris’s campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

The campaign said they are hoping for the second debate to take place in October. 

One of the moments that clearly bothered Trump was when Ms. Harris said that, as vice president, she has “traveled around the world” to meet with foreign leaders, many of whom “laugh” at Trump. She added that American military officials, “some of whom” worked for Trump, have called him a “disgrace.”

It is a sore spot for the former president, who has said repeatedly on the trail that the Biden-Harris administration has been a laughingstock. Earlier in the night, Ms. Harris highlighted a number of prominent national security officials — including Trump’s defense secretary, national security advisor, and joint chiefs of staff chairman — have all come out against him in this election. 

Trump pointed out that, of those military leaders and former staffers who are now opposed to him, he dismissed them. “They didn’t fire anybody,” Trump said of the Biden-Harris administration’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

When Trump was asked to respond about foreign leaders allegedly laughing at him, he shot back that he had strong support from Hungary’s Prime Minister Orban. “My friend Viktor,” as Trump called him, had said Trump was “feared” and “respected.”

“The leaders of foreign countries think they’re weak and incompetent,” Trump said of Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden. 

After being questioned about her role as the so-called “Border Tsar,” Ms. Harris pivoted to announce that she would “proudly sign” the bipartisan Senate border deal, which would give the president the authority to shut down crossings at ports of entry. 

Trump shot back, saying that the crimes committed by migrants are threatening the “fabric” of America. “Crime in this country is through the roof, and we have a new form of crime in this country. It’s called ‘migrant crime,’” the former president said. 

Earlier in the debate, the two started off by talking about their economic plans. Ms. Harris said Trump does not care about anyone other than his wealthy friends. 

“Donald Trump has no plan for you. When you look at his economic plan, it’s just tax cuts for the richest people,” she said. 

Ms. Harris kicked off the debate by talking about what she called the “opportunity economy,” referring to an expanded child tax credit, building new homes, and increasing capital availability for small businesses. She called the former president’s proposed tariffs a “Trump sales tax.” That plan includes a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods, and higher tariffs on Communist China. 

Trump shot back, saying that Ms. Harris’s plan was just that she had “copied Biden.”

“Donald Trump left us [with] the worst unemployment since the Great Depression,” she said in response. “What we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess.”

At two key points, the former president made what many considered insensitive comments about his opponent’s racial identity, and his own past in inciting racial division. At the National Association of Black Journalists conference this summer,  he said she had become Black “all of a sudden” for political purposes, and he infamously called for the execution of five Black and Hispanic boys decades ago in the Central Park jogger case. She also mentioned his spreading of birtherism about President Obama. 

“I don’t care what she is. I don’t care,” he said of his comments at the NABJ conference. “Whatever she wants to be is OK with me.”

She shot back, calling all of his comments a “tragedy” that he just can’t let such issues go. “We don’t want this kind of approach that is just constantly trying to divide us, especially by race.” 

“I think the American people want better than that — want better than this,” she said. “We see in each other, a friend. We see in each other, a neighbor.”

Trump took a swing at Ms. Harris on foreign policy, saying that the wars we are seeing around the globe would never have happened if he was president today. “They respect me. They don’t respect Biden,” Trump said. “He hasn’t even made a phone call in two years … that’s a war that’s dying to be settled. I’ll get it settled before I even become president. And what I’ll do is I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other.” Ms. Harris returned fire, saying President Putin and other autocrats were “rooting” for Trump because he could be manipulated with flattery. 

He made it personal again, calling Ms. Harris a Marxist, just like her father. “She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father’s a Marxist professor in economics and he taught her well,” Trump said. 

In her closing statement, Ms. Harris made the case that she was looking forward while Trump was looking back. She said debate viewers saw one vision that “is focused on the future” and “one that is focused on the past,” 

“We can chart a new way forward,” Ms. Harris added, saying that she would make sure she is “giving hard-working folks a break and bringing down the cost of living.”

“I will be a president that protests our most fundamental rights and freedoms,” Ms. Harris said. 

Trump shot back in the final word of the debate with a simple message: “Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there three-and-a-half years.”

“She should leave right now, go down to that beautiful White House … and do the things you want to do,” Trump said.