Former President Donald Trump plans to upstage the first Republican primary debate Wednesday by sitting for an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to multiple people briefed on the matter.
In the past 24 hours, Trump has told people close to him that he has made up his mind and will skip the debate in Milwaukee, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.
Trump is notoriously mercurial and left himself something of an out to change his mind with an ambiguous post on his website, Truth Social, on Thursday. He wrote that he's polling well ahead of his rivals and added, "Reagan didn't do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?"
For weeks, the former president has been quizzing aides, associates and rally crowds about what he should do. Until earlier this week, Trump had been giving people the impression that he was considering a last-minute surprise appearance Wednesday.
Still, people close to him had said for months that he was unlikely to take part in the first two Republican debates, both of which are sponsored by the Republican National Committee. And Trump's apparent decision to skip the first debate of the presidential nominating contest is a major affront to both the RNC and Fox News, which is hosting the event.
The exact timing and platform of the interview with Carlson remain unclear, but if it goes ahead as currently planned, the debate-night counterprogramming would serve as an act of open hostility.
The chair of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, has privately urged Trump to attend the debate, even traveling to his private club in Bedminster, New Jersey, last month to make her pitch in person.
And Fox News has been drawn into a public battle not only with Trump but with Carlson, who is still on contract and being paid by Fox despite having his show taken off the air. Fox sent Carlson a cease-and-desist letter after he aired a series of videos on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The Trump campaign's conversations with Carlson — and the possibility of counterprogramming — have previously been reported by multiple news organizations.
