If you want to know the impact of the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, you don’t have to wait for the polls. 

All you have to do is consider when a candidate visits “the spin room” afterward. That’s where surrogates usually go to give reporters interpretations that are favorable to their candidates.

The candidates never go to “the spin room.” 

But Trump did.

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There’s no unseeing what we saw. This is a man who claims to be so virile and strong that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened on his watch. But then Harris wounded his vanity and he snapped. If a Democratic rival can do that, imagine what foreign enemies can do.

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Just showing up was telling, but so was the reaction by the reporters in “the spin room.” In any other setting, they would have given Trump the benefit of the doubt. If he says he won, then that’s what he says. Period.

Not this time. 

“If you won tonight, why are you here?” one of them asked. 

“Why not let the performance speak for itself?” 

He couldn’t do that. His debate performance said he’s weak and confused and broken. He’s a man so fragile mentally that all it took for him to crack was Harris reminding him that he lost the last election, that he’s “confused by facts” and that voters are tired of his shtick.

More than anything else, that’s why he was in “the spin room.” All the world saw the vice president hurt him. All the world saw him flinch in pain. Trump tried to spin away the truth, but by then it was too late.

There’s no unseeing what we saw. This is a man who claims to be so virile and strong that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened on his watch. But then Harris wounded his vanity and he snapped. If a rival can do that, imagine what foreign enemies can do.

Actually, forget enemies. What about friends? 

For days leading up to the debate, Trump’s allies had been on social media hyping native-born white fear of non-white immigrants. Led by his own running mate, US Senator JD Vance, they alleged that a community of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, was eating people’s pets. 

Evidently, such race-baiting was at the tippy-top of his mind. Trump reached for it during his most desperate moment. Harris has just said the worst thing she could say to a showman. He’s boring. So he lashed out. They’re eating the dogs in Springfield, he said. They’re eating the cats. That’s the kind of country you’ll have with Harris in charge.

It was a humiliating moment. 

Made more so by Harris laughing. 

And it was a humiliation enabled by his allies.

With friends like that, who needs enemies?

They’re yes-men, of course. Allies would be truthful. Love it or hate it, that’s what former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did to Joe Biden. Trump’s allies could have done the same. They could have said you had a good run, but you’re no longer fit to meet the challenge. And indeed, on CNN last night, Pelosi characterized Trump in terms that were probably similar to ones she used to urge the president to drop out. 

“You know one of those big balloons when you stick a pin in and it swirls around the room until it comes down to nothing?” she said. “That’s what he reminds me of, just less and less, and less and less, like somebody stuck a pin in him and he’s just greatly diminished.” 

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Trump has become what he has long accused others of being. He said Harris was too stupid to be president. Before that, he said Biden was too old and weak. Then the truth was painfully revealed Tuesday night. 

As none other than Karl Rove said: “There’s no putting lipstick on this pig. Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as ‘dumb as a rock.’ Which raises the question: What does that make him?”

What it makes him is a candidate who can’t look at himself in the mirror for fear of despising what he sees. He’s famous for detesting weakness. For years, he was a TV star who said “you’re fired.” Yet he fell to pieces the moment Harris said 81 million Americans “fired you.” For Trump, it was easier to mount a coup attempt than admit he was what he hates.

Which brings me back to “the spin room.” 

We’re going to see something like it repeated many times over. 

From now until Election Day, there will be long stretches during his rallies in which Trump replays the debate, recasting himself as the winner and Kamala Harris as the loser. As he did in “the spin room” after the debate, he will tell a story in which he’s strong and she’s weak. He’s smart and she’s dumb. He’s the good guy and she’s the bad guy. 

He must tell that story. 

And for him to survive, you must believe it.