'Nobody got my approval': Trump furious he wasn't consulted about GOP debates — he's out

Former President Donald Trump intends to leave the Republican Party debates to his opponents, giving them all a free hour of media and all of the attention that follows, according to his latest post on Truth Social.

The RNC announced their 2024 debates, stating that their first will be held in Milwaukee in August 2023, the site for the 2024 RNC convention. The decision was announced Feb. 23, a full two months before Trump's Tuesday tantrum.

Trump ranted that he wasn't consulted about the presidential debates for the 2024 cycle, and as such, he doesn't plan on attending, despite the dates being far enough in the future he could build his schedule around them. It's the fact that he wasn't taken into consideration that is the problem.

"I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them," Trump posted. "When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the 'questions,' why subject yourself to being libeled and abused? Also, the Second Debate is being held at the Reagan Library, the Chairman of which is, amazingly, Fred Ryan, Publisher of The Washington Post. NO!"

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Ironically, in April 2022, the Republican Party left the Commission on Presidential Debates that was established jointly by the Democratic and Republican parties in 1987, claiming that they were biased.

"Today, the RNC voted to withdraw from the biased CPD, and we are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people," RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a statement.

Trump had such a poor performance in the 2020 presidential debates that the following weeks were filled with the press about his unhinged behavior. One report even noted that his own supporters were put off by it, and his campaign expressed concern about the fallout.

The second debate in Miami, Florida, in 2020 was canceled because Trump refused to participate. It was supposed to be a townhall style event with audience members asking questions of the candidates.

But the 2020 election wasn't the first time, either. During the 2012 campaigns, Newsmax was holding a debate between Republican candidates, and Trump refused to participate in that one as well.

Critics remarked that it appears Trump simply can't debate. In 2016 when Trump refused to debate, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speculated it was out of fear.

"We can debate foreign policy if he wants, but the problem is, he doesn't have even a basic modicum of knowledge" on foreign policy, Cruz said in a Fox interview. "He was saying just a week ago that he was eager to get one on one with me. Well, this debate, the field is narrowed even more and he could have had a direct debate with me, and yet Donald apparently is ducking, he's afraid of being challenged."