How Much Attention Did Donald Trump Get With His Debate Boycott?

Donald Trump was the big victor across social media on Thursday night during the seventh Republican presidential debate – despite the fact that he was not even there.

On Thursday night, Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier, and Chris Wallace moderated the highly anticipated Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa. And I wanted to do it, but frankly, I actually asked them, I said give five million dollars to the vets, and I’ll consider it. “They called a few minutes ago. When you’re treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights – whether we like it or not”.

In this iteration, Trump’s camp attempted to muscle the debate sponsor into dropping moderator Megyn Kelly after claiming that the conservative network’s star anchor is biased against him.

On Thursday evening, Fox News hosted a Trump-less debate, while other cable news stations aired Trump’s event.

Texas senator Ted Cruz, locked in a tight contest with Mr Trump in Iowa, opened the debate with a sarcastic impression of the property mogul’s frequent insults of his opponents.

Fox reportedly had a podium ready for Trump in case he made a decision to show up.

The event – put together in just two days – had the casual feel of a Grand Ole Opry show, with Trump speaking for a while and welcoming guests to the stage.

“Look at all the cameras”.

“This is like the Academy awards”, he said.

The prime-time event lacked some of the heat Trump often injects into debates and instead focused largely on policy.

But it’s not clear that Trump succeeded in upstaging the debate. That’s not exactly abnormal for a politician, but it certainly disputes the tell-it-like-it-is style that Trump is supposed to champion.

The real-estate magnate and tonsorial innovator grabbed 38 percent of debate mentions on Twitter, according to data from the social network.

Then again, from Fox’s perspective, Trump’s competing event should have lifted CNN and MSNBC more than it did. A number of other news outlets provided live-streams online.

As previously reported, Trump, 69, boycotted the Fox-hosted debate because of his ongoing feud with the “Kelly File” host.

“I’m a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly”, Cruz replied.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.