As Trump takes to the debate stage Thursday, his signature style may be muted

When President Biden and former President Donald Trump face off Thursday, it will mark the first time a sitting president and a former president have ever debated.

One of Trump and his team’s objectives has been to frame this election as a contest between strength and weakness.

Those efforts could be undercut by a new format designed to avoid the chaos that marked their first faceoff.

Trump has given little indication that he plans to play along.

"How should I handle him?" Trump asked supporters this weekend in Philadelphia. "Should I be tough and nasty? ... Or should I be nice and calm and let him speak?"

Their first debate four years ago quickly unraveled into a mess of angry insults and personal attacks as Trump sought to bulldoze over Biden, questioning what he said.

It’s largely because of those interruptions that this debate switches up that format, eliminating an audience and muting microphones to avoid the chaos that marked their first faceoff.

The change is largely expected to hurt Trump.

Former debate coach Jennifer Mercieca, who teaches political rhetoric at Texas A&M University, describes Trump’s debate style as authoritarian. She argues that he wants to humiliate his opponents.

“He typically will run over time. He will run over the moderator. He will interrupt,” she said. “But in this case, he won't be able to do that because they're going to mute his microphone.”

But that’s just one school of thought.

Another is that the mute button could actually benefit Trump — by tamping down the aggressiveness that rubs some people the wrong way, according to Jon McHenry, a Republican pollster with North Star Opinion Research.

He thinks many Americans feel they were financially better off under Trump, which works in his