San Francisco   -   Donald Trump declared during his first debate against President Joe Biden ahead of November’s presidential election that war in Ukraine “should have never started” had he been in office.

“That’s right!” chanted his supporter Monika Rothenbuhler amid applause in a bar in San Francisco.

Rothenbuhler, the vice chair of the local branch of the Republican party, stood on conquered ground in the pub chosen by conservatives to watch the televised duel together, in a city where they represent a minority of voters.

Trump’s many invectives and sarcasm targeting the Democratic president were met with laughter and shouts of approval, while Biden’s every hesitation and throat-clearing was a moment of triumph for most, but not for 80-year-old Hazel Reitz.

“I can’t understand a word that he says,” she blurts out to her neighbor.

“I know, it’s really sad,” replied Adina Erridge.

The two women had met only moments earlier after spotting each other’s reactions, which sharply contrasted the rest of the conservative audience.

“Oh my God!” lamented Erridge, as Reitz shook her head as former president Trump defended his actions during the storming of the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.

- ‘At least he’s articulate’ -

The two women, who will unenthusiastically be voting for Biden, came to the pub with their husbands, both doubtful Republicans.

Before the debate began, Reitz hoped the exchanges between the two politicians would be “entertaining,” but an hour later, she was downcast. “Biden is too old,” she lamented.

“Trump is not answering the questions, which is very Trump-like. He may not be truthful in what he’s saying. But at least he’s articulate,” agreed 55-year-old Erridge. “Unfortunately, Trump is winning.”

At the Continental Club, a bar in downtown Los Angeles, the frustration of a largely Democratic audience was also palpable.

But Mike McFarland refused to admit his candidate’s defeat.

“You have to determine what’s more important to you, optics or facts. I’m big on the facts, so I’m still like Biden won the debate,” he declared.

He came to watch the debate on a first date with Denise Hernandez, a fervent Trump supporter.                   “We agree to disagree,” they joked.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump accused Joe Biden on Thursday of doing a “poor job” on the US economy and of presiding over a disastrous rise in inflation -- reflecting how rising prices and the cost of living have become key issues ahead of November’s presidential election.

“He has not done a good job. He’s done a poor job,” Trump said during CNN’s head-to-head debate with Biden in Atlanta, Georgia. “And inflation is killing our country. It is absolutely killing us.”

Biden said the US economy had turned a corner under his leadership, but that more needed to be done to help the working class.

“We got to take a look at what I was left when I became president,” he said. “We had an economy that was in free fall. The pandemic was so badly handled, many people were dying.”

Americans have named inflation or the cost of living as “the most important financial problem facing their family,” in each of the last three years, according to a recent poll from the DC-based firm Gallup.

Perhaps more worryingly for Biden, 46 percent of US adults said they have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of confidence in Trump to do or recommend the right thing for the world’s largest economy, while just 38 percent said the same thing about him, according to another Gallup poll.