Donald Trump is a strong and brave leader, which is why he’s skipping Wednesday night’s GOP debate. Perhaps he sees duking it out with candidates he’s already handily clobbering as a waste of time. Perhaps he’s afraid of Chris Christie. Whatever the reason, he’ll be (mostly) MIA during Fox News’ big show. That doesn’t mean his campaign won’t still try to spin this as some kind of victory.
“President Trump has already won this evening’s debate because everything is going to be about him,” Trump Campaign Senior Adviser Chris LaCivita wrote in a statement. He continued:
“Only President Trump has the policy ideas, the fortitude, and the polling to go head-to-head with Crooked Joe Biden in the general election. Republican voters recognize this, hence President Trump’s 62-16 lead in the GOP primary.
You should also expect the Fox hosts to show an unnatural obsession with President Trump tonight, asking other Republican candidates over and over to react to President Trump’s policy positions. In fact, we will be tallying the number of times President Trump’s name is brought up, and his total ‘speaking time,’ even though he is not in attendance.
LaCivita concluded that “tonight’s Republican undercard event really shouldn’t even be called a debate, but rather an audition to be a part of President Trump’s team in his second term.”
Of course, the GOP debate will probably feature candidates talking about other things. But even when they are, Trump will definitely be the giant orange elephant in the room.
Trump will still be around during the debate. In a fit of eff-you counter-programming, the big guy will be sitting down for a softball chat with one of his fiercest critics, Tucker Carlson.
(Via Mediaite)