Donald Trump to Newsmax: Not ‘Ruling Out’ Debate, Decision ‘Next Week’

Former President Donald Trump said he has not “ruled out” participating in the first GOP primary debate, but he told Newsmax on Wednesday his official decision will come next week.

Saying it is a matter of the American people wanting “intelligence” from a president, Trump rejected those suggesting he lacks “the guts” to debate others on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee on what he called a “hostile” anti-Trump network.

“Well, that’s what people will say: They’ll say, ‘Oh, he doesn’t have the guts,'” Trump told “Eric Bolling The Balance” in a 42-minute sitdown at his summer home in Bedminster, New Jersey. “I mean, I did CNN town hall. That was about as hostile as you can do.”

Trump felt that CNN was so concerned about the high ratings of a Trump platform that they fired former CEO Chris Licht for it.

“I did so well that they fired the head of CNN over that debate,” Trump said. “But, no, it’s not a question of guts. It’s a question of intelligence.

“And I’m going to make a decision. I haven’t, you know, totally ruled it out. I would love to do it in many ways, because I sort of enjoy that. But we’ll let people know next week.”

Trump said he dined with network executives recently to try to lure him into the debate, but his campaign is not about getting ratings, it is about winning.

“They would like to see me do it, and they’ll get very good ratings,” Trump continued. “But if I show up, they’re going to get big ratings. And if I don’t show up, they’ll probably do well for about two minutes, and then everyone’s going to turn off the television.

“So we’re going to see how it goes, but we’ll make a determination very soon.”

The lone presidential debate in 2020 featured Fox News host Chris Wallace “debating me,” Trump said, pointing to Joe Biden’s claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was “Russian disinformation” and saying Wallace helped Biden deflect about the widow of the mayor of Moscow allegedly paying the Biden family businesses millions.

“Chris Wallace was, like, fighting me: ‘You shouldn’t ask that,'” Trump told host Eric Bolling. “And nobody’s mentioning that, but that was a major bone of contention, because I was saying to Chris Wallace, ‘He got $3.5 million dollars’ — and I believe it was him indirectly.

“And I was debating Joe Biden,” Trump continued. “I said, ‘Who am I debating? Am I debating him or am I debating you?’

“And now that’s turned out to be a big thing. But if you remember, three years ago, that was a big bone of contention in the debate. And nobody mentions that now, which is incredible.”

Trump added, “I was right about Ukraine.”

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