Adviser: ‘Assume’ Trump won’t attend future debates until he says otherwise

A senior adviser to Donald Trump on Monday predicted that the former president is unlikely to participate in future primary debates after he said he plans to skip Wednesday’s in Wisconsin.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night that he would “not be doing the debates,” citing his sizable lead in GOP primary polls as rationale. The use of the plural “debates” seemed to indicate that Trump would not participate in any primary debates moving forward.

“Right now I’d take President Trump’s posting on Truth Social at face value,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 campaign, said on Newsmax. “He said he’s not doing the debates, and so until he says something differently, I would assume he’s not going to be participating.”

Miller argued that this week’s debate, scheduled for Wednesday in Milwaukee and airing on Fox News, “is really going to put the spotlight on … the fact that this ‘DeSantis reboot 4.0’ is not going so well.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has been running in second behind Trump in the vast majority of polls, but recent surveys have shown other candidates closing the gap on DeSantis while Trump’s lead remains comfortable.

Trump has for months suggested he would not attend the first debate, questioning why he would subject himself to attacks from other candidates while he is leading by double digits in nearly every poll.

Trump instead is sitting down for a pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that is expected to air Wednesday.