Donald Trump said at a campaign rally on Tuesday that he "most likely" will not participate in the Fox News-Google Republican presidential debate Thursday night in Des Moines, Iowa, citing a "wise-guy" press release the media outlet released earlier in the day mocking him. Moments later, the real estate mogul's campaign manager confirmed to several media outlets that Trump will definitely not be showing up, saying, "It's not under negotiation," reports The Hill.
"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. "I'm going to do something else in Iowa...We are going to do something simultaneously with the debate, but most likely I will not be doing the debate," he said, adding, "Let's see how much money FOX is going to make on the debate without me."
His campaign then released the following statement: "He will not be participating in the FOX News debate and will instead host an event in Iowa to raise money for the Veterans and Wounded Warriors, who have been treated so horribly by our all talk, no action politicians. Like running for office as an extremely successful person, this takes guts and it is the kind mentality our country needs in order to Make America Great Again."
Trump initially suggested he would boycott the debate after learning that Fox News host Megyn Kelly would be a moderator. The two have been involved in a feud that started at last year's first Republican presidential debate, where Kelly bluntly challenged Trump over his past sexist comments about women.
Trump insisted that Kelly's "bias" and "conflict of interest" should exclude her from the moderation team, and during Tuesday's press conference, he called Kelly a "third-rate reporter" and said she is "not good at what she does."
Still, Trump hinted that he was willing overlook the problems with Kelly and participate in the debate anyway, but he said the final straw came when then Fox News started "playing games" and put out a sarcastic press release criticizing his threats to sit out of the debate.
Fox New's statement read: "We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president - a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings."
Trump addressed that statement on Tuesday during his press conference: "I didn't like the fact that they sent out press releases toying, talking about Putin and playing games. I don't know what games Roger Ailes is playing or what's wrong over there... They can't toy with me like they toy with everybody else, so let them have their debate, and let's see how they do with the ratings," reported The Washington Post.
In response, Fox released another statement saying they cannot give into terrorizations toward any of their employees:
Shortly before Trump's decision, Fox News announced the candidate lineup for the 7 p.m. EST debate: Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
Read Trump's full statement about the debate below:
"As someone who wrote one of the best-selling business books of all time, 'The Art of the Deal,' who has built an incredible company, including some of the most valuable and iconic assets in the world, and as someone who has a personal net worth of many billions of dollars, Mr. Trump knows a bad deal when he sees one. FOX News is making tens of millions of dollars on debates, and setting ratings records (the highest in history), where as in previous years they were low-rated afterthoughts.
"Unlike the very stupid, highly incompetent people running our country into the ground, Mr. Trump knows when to walk away. Roger Ailes and FOX News think they can toy with him, but Mr. Trump doesn't play games. There have already been six debates, and according to all online debate polls including Drudge, Slate, Time Magazine and many others, Mr. Trump has won all of them, in particular the last one. Whereas he has always been a job creator and not a debater, he nevertheless truly enjoys the debating process - and it has been very good for him, both in polls and popularity.
He will not be participating in the FOX News debate and will instead host an event in Iowa to raise money for the Veterans and Wounded Warriors, who have been treated so horribly by our all talk, no action politicians. Like running for office as an extremely successful person, this takes guts and it is the kind mentality our country needs in order to Make America Great Again."