‘Coward’ Donald Trump plans to skip first Republican presidential debate for Tucker Carlson interview

While former US president Donald Trump was known for his brash and unbelievable comments when appearing on TV debates with eventual successor Joe Biden back in 2020, the businessman seems to be a lot less confident about discussing policy with other politicians this time around – opting to speak to Tucker Carlson instead.

In a post to his own Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump addressed the issue of whether he would be appearing in any debates by insisting “people know my record” as “one of the best ever”.

“So why would I debate? I’m your man,” he wrote, complete with capital letters, of course.

The same day, NBC News reported Trump had other plans, intending to chat Fox News reject as an alternative.

The host, whose show Tucker Carlson Tonightpromoted the antisemitic ‘white replacement theory’ and claimed domestic terrorism “doesn’t exist”, “parted ways” with the news network in April not long after the broadcaster settled a lawsuit by voting machine firm Dominion over comments made by Carlson and others.

It’s a somewhat bizarre choice for Trump, considering that lawsuit saw messages from Carlson released to the public in which the presenter (now hosting a regular programme on Elon Musk’s Twitter/X) said he “passionately” hated the former president and branded him “a demonic force, a destroyer”.

Awkward.

Not to mention Fox News are the channel set to host the first GOP presidential debate Trump doesn’t plan to attend later this month.

Double awkward.

Trump’s intention to skip the debate and avoid scrutiny has since seen him branded a “coward” by Twitter/X users:

It wouldn’t be Trump’s first interview since Carlson’s private, critical comments were reported earlier this year, as 2024 presidential candidate sat down not long before the latter left Fox News to have a “historic interview”.

The interview was so “historic” that it went viral after the Republican went on a weird tangent about dogs in Afghanistan.

So you just know this new interview will just be utterly riveting…

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.