According to an average of Republican presidential preference polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, former President Trump has more than a 30-point lead over the second-place candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Since he is so far ahead, Trump has privately discussed possibly skipping at least one of the first two primary debates. Between the first debate in August, to be hosted in Milwaukee by Bret Baier and Martha McCallum of the Fox News Channel, and the second, reportedly to take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families thinks Trump would be wise to sit out either of those.
"People at Fox News and others get angry at Donald Trump [for] saying negative things about his competitors," Bauer notes. "Well, they're saying negative things about him. And what do they think is going to happen at a Republican presidential debate in which there are 10 or 12 people on the stage? If I thought that all 10 or 12 of them were going to take shots at Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the deep state and the left wing in America, I'd say, 'Hey, the more the merrier!'"
But Bauer does not think that will happen.
"It's going be a typical Republican circular firing squad," he predicts. "That's not going help any of them, and it's not going help us prevent a disastrous reelection of Joe Biden. So if I were Donald Trump, unless somebody was getting close to me in the polls, I see no reason why he should subject himself to being on that debate stage," Bauer concludes.
A former attorney for Donald Trump agrees.
Recently on her American Family Radio program, Jenna Ellis said Trump does not want to give the other GOP candidates the chance to gang up on him.
"Chris Christie, who has basically said he doesn't even want the job, he's just running to troll Donald Trump with his own record," she stated. "I don't think that President Trump will want to engage that."
So even though the media will criticize him for refusing to take the pledge to go along and participate in the debate stage, she agrees that skipping the debates is probably a good call.
"If I was still advising him, I would suggest that probably the net negative would be less if he did not participate, at least at this moment," Ellis said.
