MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) 鈥 Donald Trump is again threatening to skip a presidential debate.
The Republican former president has privately said that a debate in August would be too early and he would not participate, according to two people familiar with his concerns who insisted on anonymity to detail private discussions. He also has stepped up his public complaints this week, suggesting that his poll numbers are so high he has no reason to compete with the rest of the field.
鈥淚 see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them,鈥 Trump said in a Tuesday post on his social media network.
Trump repeated the idea at at campaign event in New Hampshire on Thursday afternoon, showing a slideshow of his recent poll numbers among the GOP contenders and saying of the debates, 鈥淲hy would you do that?鈥
The emerging spat is a preview of the potential tension that could lie ahead as the Republican 好色tv Committee works to oversee an open, competitive primary process while Trump aims to establish himself as the undisputed leader of the party who doesn't need to engage in such traditions. It's an echo of his previous campaigns when he often dangled the potential of skipping debates 鈥 and sometimes followed through with the threat. In the process, he kept the spotlight on himself and turned the GOP establishment and the news media into a foil that resonated with the party base.
For now, the RNC is moving forward with the debate, which is slated to be , a network that has an up-and-down relationship with Trump. In a Wednesday interview on Fox, RNC Chair was asked about Trump鈥檚 public鈥檚 complaints regarding the RNC鈥檚 debate plans and whether she had spoken to him about his concerns.
鈥淚 talk to President Trump all the time,鈥 McDaniel said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e talked to all the potential candidates. We鈥檝e let them know the schedule. We鈥檝e announced the debates.鈥
鈥淏ut every campaign and every candidate is going to have to make a decision,鈥 she continued. 鈥淗e鈥檚 going to have to make that decision. I think he鈥檒l do it.鈥
Trump, whose political arc has been defined by unprecedented behavior and shunning norms he disagrees with, has skipped debates before. In 2016, Trump before the Iowa caucuses and held his own campaign event instead. In 2020, Trump pulled out of the second general election debate against after the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates sought to make it a virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump had recently .
Each time Trump skipped a debate, he participated in another event that aimed to draw away viewing audiences, a playbook he would likely follow again this year.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the 鈥榪uestions,鈥 why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?鈥 he wrote on his social media platform this week.
While many Fox News hosts have boosted Trump over the years, the network drew the ire of him and his supporters when in 2020 it accurately called Biden, a Democrat, as , an early sign that Trump would go on to . The network began focusing less on the former president in 2022 and didn鈥檛 carry his full speech in November announcing he was once again . In what was deemed a 鈥渟oft ban鈥 by the network, Fox News had no on-air interviews with Trump from late September 2022 until late March 2023.
Private text messages revealed as part of an elections technology company鈥檚 against Fox showed host , who was on Monday, disparaging Trump. The relationship appeared to improve, at least publicly, as Carlson interviewed Trump earlier this month. Trump told the conservative outlet Newsmax this week that he was 鈥渟hocked鈥 by Carlson's departure.
In an interview Wednesday with WABC radio in New York, Trump said many people ask him why he鈥檇 do a debate when Republican primary polls show him with a massive lead over his nearest potential challenger, .
鈥淧eople don鈥檛 debate when they have these massive leads,鈥 he said.
Trump has also complained about the choice of venue for the second debate, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Though the library has hosted Republican presidential debates before, including a 2015 debate that Trump participated in, the former president is complaining that Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, is the chairman of the foundation鈥檚 board of trustees.
The RNC is currently considering whether to require debate participants to meet new thresholds showing broad support among donors and in polling to make the stage, along with signing a pledge to support the GOP鈥檚 presidential nominee.
Former Arkansas Gov. , who formally on Wednesday and has called for Trump to exit the race to address , has said he has concerns about a loyalty pledge and is discussing it with the RNC.
GOP debate participants may also be asked to sign a pledge to avoid participating in any general election debate hosted by the Commission for Presidential Debates, which has hosted general election debates for more than three decades but which Republicans have viewed as biased against them.
Trump has hinted he may ignore that pledge as well, saying in his radio interview Wednesday that when it comes to a general election debate, 鈥淵ou have, really, an obligation to do that.鈥
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