Donald Trump

Will Trump Regret Skipping The GOP Debates?

A FiveThirtyEight Chat

Aug. 30

, 2023, at 6:00 AM

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat.

The transcript below has been lightly edited.

maya (Maya Sweedler, senior editor): The first Republican debate last Wednesday featured eight candidates — none of whom was the front-runner.

Former President Donald Trump elected to skip the debate, writing on his social media website that “The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had.”

In his absence, the other candidates … well, what did the other candidates do, and was it effective?…