Donald Trump Jr. said he and his wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, will attend the first GOP primary debate, which his father, Donald Trump, has decided to skip.
“We’re excited to see all of our friends in Milwaukee who want to Make America Great Again!!!” Trump Jr. wrote on social media, sharing a link to a Daily Caller article about the news.
According to the conservative news site, the pair will be promoting their Rumble shows and doing media appearances for the former president.
The Trump campaign confirmed Trump Jr. will go to Milwaukee as a surrogate for the Republican front-runner, according to The Hill.
The announcement came before Axios reported that Fox News had restricted access to the media area and would offer automatic credentials to the post-debate “spin room” only to surrogates for candidates who take part in the debate.
It’s not clear how this will affect Trump’s son. Representatives of candidates not in the debate could still enter the area if invited by a media organization, according to Axios.
Trump said Sunday he would not participate in the GOP debates, suggesting he will skip Wednesday’s event and potentially also future ones. He cited his lead in the polls, writing on social media, “the public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had.”
He will reportedly appear instead in a pretaped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which is scheduled to air at the same time as the debate.
The Republican National Committee announced Monday that eight candidates are scheduled to appear in the debate, which will be hosted by Fox News.
Those planning to participate are: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.