Donald Trump will not participate in Thursday’s debate, per his campaign manager

Donald Trump’s campaign declared Tuesday that the Republican presidential front-runner is boycotting Thursday’s GOP debate hosted by Fox News.

“I’m going to be making a decision with Fox, but I probably won’t bother doing the debate”, Trump said at a press conference in Marshalltown, Iowa, reported CBS News.

“He will not be participating in the Fox News debate Thursday”, Corey Lewandowski said immediately after the press conference. That was confirmed soon after when his campaign said in a typically bombastic statement that “Mr. Trump knows a bad deal when he sees one”, and lashed out at Fox News, the host of the Iowa debate.

After Fox mocked him for polling his Twitter followers about whether he should go to the debate, given Kelly’s alleged bias, Trump announced he would boycott it.

He added that Trump will instead spend his time Thursday with wounded veterans in Des Moines, Iowa. “He can lay out his vision for this country, and I can lay out my vision for this country in front of the men and women of Iowa”.

Democratic strategist David Axelrod said Wednesday that Donald Trump is staying in the spotlight by skipping the next GOP presidential debate.

The Texas senator also questioned why Trump would be “afraid” to debate him head-to-head.

On the fly, Trump is rewriting the rules of how to campaign for president.

Fox News said in a statement Tuesday that the network would refuse to “give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees”.

“If you’re afraid of Megyn Kelly, then you’re going to be afraid of Hillary Clinton”.

“They (Fox News) can’t toy with me like they toy with everybody else”.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh took Donald Trump’s side in a feud with Fox News, saying the network had played into the billionaire’s hand by engaging him. We’re going to do something simultaneously with the debate.

“I promise you Putin is a lot scarier than Megyn Kelly”, Cruz said. His campaign manager told reporters Trump is skipping the debate and instead will be holding a competing event.

The Fox News event will be the last debate before the Iowa caucuses take place February 1. Trump is welcome at the debate “and will be treated fairly… but he can’t dictate the moderators or the questions”.

And it’s all because Trump has beef with one of Fox’s most recognizable and respected faces.

In an Instagram video that coincided with his poll, Trump said, “Megyn Kelly’s really biased against me. And if you want a job interview, the first thing you should do to get the job is show up at the interview”, Cruz told Hannity.