Here's why Trump is likely to skip early debates, according to insiders

Donald Trump is likely sit out one or both of the first two debates in the 2024 Republican presidential race, according to a published report that cites five people who have discussed appearing at the early debates with the former president.

Trump in recent weeks has told confidants that among the chief reasons for skipping the early debates is that he doesn’t want to give rival candidates he already leads in the polls oxygen by appearing with them on the same stage, The New York Times reports.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel last month announced that Fox News will host the first debate, scheduled to be held in Milwaukee in August. The second debate will be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Trump owns a commanding early lead in most polls, leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not yet declared his candidacy by 34 points, according to 538’s most recent polling average.

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According to the report, Trump told an associate: “I’m up by too many points.”

But one advisor described the situation as “fluid,” according to the report.

The Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan write: “Mr. Trump may find it hard to stay away from a stage where others are criticizing him, and some senior Republicans expect that he will ultimately join the debates. He has long credited the debates in the 2016 campaign, both in the primary and the general election, for his victories.”

The former president’s absence from a presidential debate would likely shrink the viewing audience.

According to Haberman and Swan, “For Mr. Trump, denying his low-polling rivals access to a massive television audience is part of his calculations in potentially skipping the debates, according to the people who have discussed the matter with him. In 2015, Fox News drew an audience of 24 million for the first primary debate of the 2016 campaign. It was, at the time, the biggest viewership for a nonsports event in cable television history.”

Trump has other reasons for skipping the first two debates.

Trump believes August is too early for a first debate, and he remains bitter with Fox News over the right-wing outlet’s calling the state of Arizona for Joe Biden in 2020.

The second debate is a “nonstarter,” according to the report, because it is being held at the Reagan Library, where Washington Post publisher and CEO Frederick J. Ryan Jr. serves on the board of trustees.