Former President Donald Trump has hinted at the possibility of participating in future Republican presidential primary debates. While he chose not to participate in the first debate and instead conducted a pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson, he has not ruled out future participation.
During an interview on Todd Starnes’s radio show, President Trump stated that he might consider joining future debates. He emphasized his past success in debates and his current strong position in the GOP primary polls. As of August 30, Trump leads the GOP primary polls with 50.3 percent support, far ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 14.8 percent.
President Trump also highlighted the success of his interview with Tucker Carlson on X (formerly known as Twitter), suggesting that such interviews might be more beneficial than traditional debates.
The first presidential debate, held in Wisconsin on August 23, attracted around 13 million viewers. In contrast, the Trump-Carlson interview garnered nearly 200 million views on X. However, views on X are counted when a person views a post, regardless of whether they watched the entire video.
A recent Economist-YouGov poll indicated that 61 percent of Republicans approved of President Trump’s decision not to participate in the first debate, while 57 percent believed he should participate in the second debate.
While discussing potential running mates, President Trump did not respond to the question of whether he saw anyone at the debate who might be suitable. He previously praised Vivek Ramaswamy as “great” when asked about him as a potential running mate.
President Trump also released a video on his Truth Social account criticizing some of the presidential hopefuls at the first debate, calling them “second-tier” candidates. He currently faces legal cases related to his efforts to dispute the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states.
