HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Hillary Clinton managed to crawl under Donald Trump’s skin in the first presidential debate Monday night by targeting his most sensitive pressure points: his wealth and his business record.

The Democratic nominee systematically needled Trump on the primary qualification he’s put forward to voters, often parrying thorny questions into detailed diatribes on his checkered professional past that’s made him a renowned international figure. Trump, who responded to Clinton’s charges with aggravation, indignation and consistent interruptions, sought to paint the former secretary of state as a stale politician who has failed to produce results at home and abroad after decades toiling in public life.

But while Clinton largely took Trump’s erratic broadsides in stride, refusing to be rattled and producing the night’s most memorable and cutting lines, Trump seemed more concerned about responding to Clinton’s strikes and defending his gold-plated brand than connecting with the American public about their issues and concerns.

Clinton looked comfortable and smiled throughout the 90-minute face-off at Hofstra University, even during some of the most tension-ridden exchanges. Trump wore a steely scowl on his face from the beginning, often anxiously bobbing his head into the microphone to interject and curiously sniffling throughout.

It amounted to a missed opportunity for Trump that could inhibit his ability to make a full comeback in the tightening race for the White House with just over 40 days until the election. One focus group of 29 undecided voters in Ohio found that 17 scored the debate for Clinton. Not one said Trump was the victor.

Clinton signaled early on that she would attempt to prick Trump by citing that he was fortunate to get his start in business with a $14 million loan from his father. When moderator Lester Holt of NBC News turned to Trump with a question about how he would resurrect American manufacturing, the Republican nominee couldn’t resist defending his business beginnings, saying his father gave him only a small loan in 1975, which he used to create a multibillion dollar company.

It was an early sign that Trump would not allow any slight about his past to go unanswered. Over the span of the debate, that worked to Clinton’s benefit.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for her.

An early and spirited back-and-forth on trade played to Trump’s strength. While he took the populist offensive and called for the broad renegotiation of U.S. trade deals, Clinton was placed on the defensive for her husband’s signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement and her change of position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she now says she opposes.

“Your husband signed NAFTA, which was one of the worst things that’s ever happened to the manufacturing industry,” Trump said.

When Trump persisted on Clinton’s inconsistency on the issue, she almost appeared at a loss for words, though she insisted her TPP opposition came once the deal’s final terms were laid out.

“Well, Donald, I know you live in your own reality,” she said.

But after Clinton told the audience she had turned her website into a template to fact-check Trump’s statements, he redirected the argument toward terrorism, claiming she was unwisely telegraphing her plan for fighting the Islamic State group.

“No wonder you’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life,” he said, oddly.

Clinton smiled.

“Join the debate by saying more crazy things,” she later said.

Pressed on when he would release his tax returns — a practice followed by every modern major party nominee — Trump again deflected to say he would do so when a government audit was completed.

Clinton suggested Trump was stalling on disclosing his taxes for multiple reasons, another attack meant to make his blood boil. She said he may not be as wealthy or charitable as he claims, that he owes millions to Wall Street and foreign banks and that his returns may just reveal he is skirting paying federal taxes altogether.

“It must be something really important, even terrible, that he’s trying to hide,” she goaded.

At first, Trump challenged Clinton, saying he would make his taxes public when she releases “her 33,000 emails that have been deleted.”

It was a smart play for Trump to raise an issue that goes to the heart of voters’ concerns about her trustworthiness, but he failed to drive it home.

While Clinton briefly but directly acknowledged her decision to conduct government business via private email was a mistake, Trump lingered on that vulnerability only briefly, missing an obvious opportunity to hammer at his opponent’s most glaring weakness.

Whether it was a lack of discipline or an inability to recall the facts on the spot, Trump whiffed on what should’ve been a scorching blow against Clinton. Instead, she walked away from the exchange — as she did from the evening — mostly unscathed.

And while Trump has tried to move past his embrace of the birther issue — the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. — Clinton looked to make it part of a long pattern of behavior that hearkened back to his early real estate dealings, when he was sued by the Justice Department and accused of not renting to African-Americans in New York City.

Trump’s only response was to say that other companies were sued as well and to boast that he settled the lawsuit without an admission of guilt. But, he quipped, “I notice you bring that up a lot.”

And on the country’s housing crisis, when Clinton said Trump once rooted for it in order to make money, the billionaire was unapologetic and unsympathetic.

“That’s called business, by the way,” he retorted.

Clinton’s preparation for the high-stakes platform was on full display. While her opening statement sounded dispassionate and scripted, she appeared to grow into her own voice as the debate progressed, even when employing canned lines.

She dubbed her opponent’s tax-cutting plan “Trumped-up trickle-down.”

She produced a swift and stinging comeback when Trump came at her for taking time off the campaign trail.

“Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And, yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president,” she said.

And when Trump went on a lengthy tangent criticizing her foreign policy record, she visibly shook at her podium in a playful manner and let out a “Whoo!” while wearing a big, broad smile.

Aside from his early pronouncements on trade, Trump relied mostly on emotion and highlights of the opposition research book prepared for him. He skirted substance and often returned to his signature phrases.

He accused Clinton of planning to raise taxes “big league.” In highlighting a potential stop-and-frisk policy to curb violence, he accused Clinton of not wanting to use the words “law and order” to form her approach.

He vehemently denied he was ever in favor of the Iraq War, even though Holt noted “the record shows otherwise.”

And he plainly took a shot at Clinton’s health, saying he doesn’t believe she has the stamina to be president.

Even in this highly formal setting, Trump essentially hued to his true form — antagonistic, caustic and unapologetic — and it likely didn’t advance his case.

But there was one line Trump did draw — sort of.

After Clinton rattled off past statements Trump has made about women, saying he’s called them “pigs,” “slobs” and “dogs,” he strongly suggested he had considered raising former President Bill Clinton’s infidelity against her in the debate.

Over the weekend, after all, he had floated bringing Gennifer Flowers, a woman whom Bill Clinton had a sexual relationship with years ago, to sit in the front row at Hofstra.

In both cases, Trump evidently concluded, “I just can’t do it.”

Yet in a way, he still did.

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Donald Trump Takes Hillary Clinton’s Bait In First Presidential Debate originally appeared on usnews.com