Trump Will Appear at the GOP Primary Debate on Fox News — But There’s a (Ridiculous) Twist!

Nick Caruso
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Former President Donald Trump and Republican 2024 frontrunner will appear during Wednesday’s GOP presidential primary debate after all, but definitely not how one would expect.

Despite Sunday’s news that Trump would not be participating in the presidential debates — which kick off tonight, Wednesday Aug. 23 at 9/8c on Fox News — reports indicate that he will still have a strong presence during the event.

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According to The Daily Beast, the network plans to “beam Trump in” by playing clips of him throughout the debate and having the candidates respond. The move all but ensures a lively debate, with an almost guaranteed social media flurry, to boot. It is hoped this will satisfy “the MAGA base that craves all things Trump,” and also serve as effective counter-programing to Trump’s pre-taped interview with Tucker Carlson that is set to debut on X (fka Twitter) at the same time. That piece was taped at Trump’s Bedminster, N.J. golf club and is reported to be two hours in length, similar to the debate’s runtime.

“The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had,” Trump wrote Sunday on his social media site, Truth Social. “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”

His decision to opt out of debates came just days after being indicted for the fourth time in the past five months. Trump was most recently charged with 13 felonies in Georgia for allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to President Joe Biden.

And it won’t be the the first time Trump has skipped a major GOP debate. In 2016, Trump opted to hold his own campaign event instead of attending the last Republican primary face-off before the Iowa caucuses. In 2020, after testing positive for COVID-19, he pulled out of the second general election debate against now-President Joe Biden because he refused to participate virtually.

Candidates qualified to participate in Wednesday’s event include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

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