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U.S. Republicans are often depicted by the party's symbolic animal - an elephant - but as the party stages its first debate Wednesday night on the path to picking its 2024 presidential nominee, its biggest elephant of all, Donald Trump, says he won't be physically in the room.
With a commanding lead in polling against his Republican opponents, the former U.S. leader declared Sunday night on his Truth Social media site, "The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had. I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!"
But metaphorically, Trump will still be the elephant in the debate hall in the midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Some of his opponents are attacking his no-debate decision, with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie accusing him of lacking "the guts to show up" and calling him "a coward." The Drudge Report news site characterized Trump as a cartoon figure and called him "Donald Duck."
A political action committee supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is polling a distant second to Trump among Republican voters, released an ad in which the narrator says: "We can't afford a nominee who is too weak to debate."
Trump can expect more such gibes from the debate stage as his rivals attempt to separate themselves from the pack to become the one or two remaining opponents to face Trump head-on as Republicans begin to vote in party presidential nominating contests in early 2024.
Fox News debate moderators could also frame questions to reference Trump's absence, his stance on issues and the fact he is facing four criminal indictments, the first ever such accusations against a sitting or former U.S. president.
In one case, he is accused of 2020 election interference in the southern state of Georgia, where he has been given until Friday noon to surrender for his arrest and booking before he is freed pending future court appearances. Two of his criminal trials have been scheduled for the first half of 2024 and dates for the other two could soon be set. The trials, if they eventually occur in the midst of his presidential campaign, would force Trump to sit in courtrooms on weekdays as a defendant rather flying around the country to stage political rallies.
Nine Republican candidates could appear on the debate stage, although the Republican National Committee has yet to officially certify which candidates have qualified by meeting requirements for at least minimal polling support and 40,000 campaign donors from across an array of states.
The RealClearPolitics.com polling aggregation site shows Trump with a huge lead among Republicans for the party's presidential nomination - roughly 40 percentage points ahead of DeSantis. The polls show all the remaining candidates with less than 10% support apiece.
Trump is calculating that with more than half of Republican voters supporting his third run for the presidency, he has nothing to gain by attending the debate and little to lose by skipping it.
In an interview in June with Fox News host Bret Baier, one of the debate moderators, Trump said, "Why would I allow people at 1 or 2% and 0% to be hitting me with questions all night?"
In effort to upstage the debate, Trump instead plans to release a recorded interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, who was ousted from his Fox News show earlier this year.
In the end, however, until he does not show up in Milwaukee, there is still the possibility that Trump might be lured to the debate stage.
One of his opponents who knows him best, Mike Pence, Trump's vice president, told ABC's "This Week" show, "I'm still kind of hoping maybe he'll come."