Trump to skip New Hampshire GOP forum

Businessman Donald Trump has declined to participate in a forum of Republican presidential candidates next week, partly because he says a newspaper sponsoring the event is unlikely to endorse him.

Trump told the New Hampshire Union Leader in a letter that he felt it was “unlikely” he would be getting its endorsement, saying, “I have made a great fortune based on instinct and that, unfortunately, is my view.”  

{mosads}“Therefore, and for other reasons including the fact that I feel there are too many people onstage to have a proper forum, I will not be attending,” Trump wrote to publisher Joseph McQuaid, according to the newspaper.  

Fourteen Republican presidential candidates are slated to appear at the Voters First Presidential Forum in New Hampshire next Monday, according to the Union Leader, making Trump one of a few to miss the televised event.

Media outlets from several early voting states including the Union Leader, South Carolina’s Post and Courier and Iowa’s The Gazette are sponsoring the event, which will be broadcast live on C-SPAN. 

Trump’s office initially said he would not participate in the forum because the Union Leader published an editorial that criticized his remarks questioning Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) war record, according to the newspaper. 

The forum will come just three days before the first Republican National Committee-sanctioned debate on Fox News.