President Trump and some of his closest aides and advisers decided that when it comes to debate prep, he will only have five or six people in the room with him to limit the potential for leaks, someone with knowledge of the matter leaked to Axios.
Trump, his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, campaign manager Bill Stepien, senior adviser Jason Miller, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie met at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, two weekends ago to plot out how they will prepare for debates with former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Axios reports. The group agreed that they would gather every 10 days until the first scheduled debate, and they might welcome different people based on their subject matter expertise.
Christie pretended to be Hillary Clinton during 2016 debate prep sessions, and Trump has told people privately it is likely he'll step in and role-play as Biden this time around, Axios reports. Miller and Christie have both told Trump not to go into the first debate thinking he'll trounce Biden, as he has experience with debating, and one person told Axios Trump has "verbalized how important these are going to be. He's said, 'We gotta win.'"
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