David Jackson

USA TODAY

Donald Trump isn't saying much about debate preparation, with one notable exception.

Baiting the moderators.

The Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly wondered whether the moderators will be "fair" to him, engaging in what analysts described as age-old pre-debate tactics: lowering expectations and intimidating the questioners.

"Look, it's a phony system," Trump told Bill O'Reilly of Fox News this week.

Trump has complimented the moderator of Monday night's first debate, Lester Holt of NBC News, but with a distinct edge.

"I think Lester Holt will be very fair," Trump said during a rally in Kenansville, N.C., "but a lot of people are going to be watching to see if that's true. The reason why so many corporate newspapers and news anchors are opposed to our movement is the same reason why the lobbyists and the donors are."

In bemoaning the "phony system," Trump accused Holt of being a Democrat earlier this week, though a later review of records indicate he has been a registered Republican since 2003.

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Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan, compared Trump to a coach at a basketball game who is "working the referees" in hopes that "they'll go easier" on him.

Jo-Renee Formicola, political science professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, described Trump's approach in terms of lowering expectations.

"If he is asked questions he is unable to answer, he would try to deflect them back onto the questioners," she said.

Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton meet for the first of three president debates Monday at Hofstra University on Long Island.

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As part of his pre-debate public lobbying, Trump said Democrats are the ones trying to pressure the moderators. He cited criticism of NBC's Matt Lauer, who took heat for his questioning of the Republican candidate during a "Commander-In-Chief" forum earlier this month.

Claiming the criticism of Lauer is designed to pressure debate moderators, Trump told Fox that "they hit Matt because they said he should have been much tougher ... What they are doing is they are gaming the system, like gaming the ref."

Trump and has aides have also had choice words for future debate moderators, telling O'Reilly that "I'm not okay with Anderson Cooper because I think he treats me very unfairly at CNN."

Cooper and Martha Raddatz of ABC News are scheduled to co-moderate the second debate on Oct. 9 in St. Louis.

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Trump has had kinder words for Chris Wallace of Fox News, who will moderate the third and final debate Oct. 19 in Las Vegas.

The Republican nominee and his aides haven't said much about how he is preparing for the debate, beyond studying the issues and speaking with a number of advisers.

In interviews, Trump has questioned the very need for moderators.

"Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate, because I think that the system is being rigged, so I think it's going to be a very unfair debate," Trump said this month on CNBC.

Kall — co-editor of Debating The Donald, a book analyzing Trump's performances at GOP primary debates — said the candidate tended to make announcements at those encounters, such as his proclamation that he would not run an independent campaign.

Trump will probably use Monday's encounter to make some kind of news, Kall said: "I feel like he's got a surprise up his sleeve."