What to Watch at the Donald Trump-Kamala Harris Debate

The debate on Tuesday night stands to be the most important night in Vice President Kamala Harris’s political career. It will offer her her biggest audience yet as the country tries to learn more about what kind of president she would make.

Former President Donald J. Trump enters the debate hoping to turn the page on a tough summer. Ms. Harris has closed the polling gap with him since she replaced President Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee. Tuesday may be one of Mr. Trump’s best shots to reverse that momentum before Americans begin early voting.

Ms. Harris’s aides and supporters want her to goad the former president into delivering incoherent rants. The Trump team wants him to turn the conversation back to three areas they consider winning terrain: the economy, immigration and global chaos.

With no other debates scheduled between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump, the face-off figures to be one of the highest-stakes 90 minutes in American politics in generations.

Here is what to watch for:

Seared into the memories of the former president’s advisers is the first debate in 2020, when a sweaty, Covid-addled Mr. Trump ranted and raved, talking over the top of Joseph R. Biden Jr. and turning off so many voters that his polling declined noticeably in its aftermath.

Mr. Trump knows he did poorly in that debate and has acknowledged it privately, according to aides. But Trump advisers still worry that he won’t be able to contain his animosity toward Ms. Harris. The last time Mr. Trump debated a woman it was Hillary Clinton, his 2016 rival. He called her a “nasty woman” and stalked behind her onstage, but his aides thought he was relatively calm by Mr. Trump’s standards.