Donald Trump is pretty famously bad at debates where it’s against the rules to just be a loud jerk. In fact, being a loud jerk is what he built his career on. Removing his one discernible skill from the table puts him at a pretty significant handicap.

But presidential elections carry a certain amount of expectations. You have to at least seem presidential at some point.

After relying on Joe Biden’s stutter and a brief illness suffered during their debate, Trump ran a victory lap like nobody had ever seen. He could NOT stop talking about how good he’d been, and just how terrible Joe had done. He handed out money to supporters during a golf outing with his son who praised his debate performance.

But even the media is catching up to how much Trump wants to avoid debating Kamala Harris.

This is as close as Donald will ever come to having to debate Barack Obama, who would have made him look like an absolute fool, and done it with a kind grin on his face.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins picked up on the tension after reports that the Trump and Harris teams were sparring over the rules for the upcoming ABC debate. Namely, they went back and forth about whether microphones should be muted unless it’s one particular candidate’s turn to talk.

Such a rule would be great for Trump’s effort, because it would limit his ridiculous behavior to just the things he was prompted to say in practice. But having the mics live would help Kamala, since the world would see — all over again — the fact that Trump can’t be presidential for more than a few moments at a time.

Collins was a guest on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, alongside longtime Democratic strategist James Carville and Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw.

On the “Overtime” section of the show, Carville brought up the fact that at the very least, the debate promises to be chaotic. That sparked further conversation, and Collins reached into her bag of well-placed Trump sources to weigh in:

CARVILLE: And I think we can get there; I think the debate on September 10th is going to be so consequential, and it’s going to have an audience that we can’t believe. Because what does America love? A train wreck. And they had one on June 27 and they want another train wreck.

CRENSHAW: We agree on that.

MAHER: Do you guys have that debate?

COLLINS: It’s ABC debate.

MAHER: ABC debate.

COLLINS: If it happens. I still think it’s an open question, whether or not it happens.

MAHER: Really?

CARVILLE: Trump’s gonna go, he’s got to.

MAHER: You figure Trump is going to pull out?

COLLINS: I think Trump is nervous about it. I think Trump– I talk to a lot of sources in his world. I think he has really struggled with it. It’s not just a narrative or a talking point from Democrats. He really has struggled with with how to to combat her. And I think going into that debate, he does not really want to do it. I think it’s difficult, if not impossible, for him to pull out because his campaign manager had cards printed that said “anywhere, time, any place” for for President Biden. And it would look weak. But I don’t think he’s looking forward to it at this point.

He’d be an idiot if he WAS looking forward to it. Because when it comes down to it, this is not just prosecutor versus felon.

This is a guy whose family was banned from running charities in New York because they were caught stealing from a children’s cancer fund versus a woman who dissolved her political action committees after winning the vice presidency and gave all the money to charity.

This is a woman with degrees in political science and economics versus a man who prides himself on not being a politician who’s bankrupted multiple casinos and been barred from running businesses in the city where he built his fortune.

This is a debate between the oldest presidential candidate to ever make it to the general election and a woman who could serve 8 full years as president and still be younger than Trump was the FIRST time he ran for president in 2016.

Trump has every reason to be terrified of this debate, and Kaitlan Collins nails it when she says that he doesn’t actually want to do it. He can’t act like a tough guy with someone who has a stutter and then run from a woman.

Even his own voters might frown on that.

And on Sunday, Trump hit Truth Social yelling that ABC wasn’t fair to him. He said, “I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network? Will panelist Donna Brazil give the questions to the Marxist Candidate like she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton? Will Kamala’s best friend, who heads up ABC, do likewise. Where is Liddle’ George Slopadopolus hanging out now? Will he be involved. They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!! Why did Harris turn down Fox, NBC, CBS, and even CNN? Stay tuned!!!”