Donald Trump And Fox News Draw Battle Lines As Trump Promises To Shun GOP Debate

Donald Trump and Fox News are not seeing eye to eye these days.

The Republican front-runner and the cable network, reportedly a favorite among the party’s voters, have engaged in a scathing verbal spar over the past few days, finally culminating in Trump’s “near unprecedented” decision to ditch Thursday’s GOP debate, according to USA Today.

Trump demanded that Megyn Kelly, his number one media adversary, not be allowed to moderate the GOP debate because of his well-documented animosity with her. But as can be expected, Fox News failed to accede to Trump’s request, forcing his campaign to issue a statement on Tuesday, confirming his decision to skip the debate.

“[Donald Trump] 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,” read the statement.

"@Sharp_Trident: A huge disappointment to see @megynkelly constantly attack DonaldTrump. It has become almost unbearable to watch her show."

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016

Remarkably, it also appears that the real estate mogul-turned-politician banked on his Twitter followers for the decision. As Re/Code reports, Donald Trump carried out a poll on his Twitter account, asking his followers if he should shun the GOP debate come Thursday. A majority of his followers asked him to skip the debate, prompting many to wonder if the Republican front-runner takes his cue only for social media.

This, of course, is not the first time that Trump has threatened to skip a debate. At one time, he asked CNN to donate $5 million if they wanted him to attend the event. The news network essentially called his bluff, and Trump promptly attended the debate.

However, as things stand, this time Donald Trump’s decision to sit out the GOP debate appears “irrevocable,” according to a statement issued by his campaign. His confidence, in part, stems from the fact that Trump knows that his presence in the presidential race has made for riveting TV. If there is no Trump, there is perhaps not much money to be made.

“Let’s see how much money Fox is going to make on the debate without me,” Trump emphatically proclaimed at a news conference on Tuesday.

But Fox News has refused to back down in the face of Trump’s explicit attacks. Not only has it declined to listen to Trump’s request, it has firmly stood beside Kelly, even going on to ridicule Trump for his dependence on Twitter to make important decisions.

“It should be clear to the American public by now that this is rooted in one thing — Megyn Kelly, whom he has viciously attacked since August and has now spent four days demanding be removed from the debate stage.”

“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.”

Megyn Kelly, who has repeatedly been branded a “third-rate journalist” by Trump in the past, said that although the billionaire might be used to controlling things as the head of a large corporation, he is certainly not going to be able to control the media.

“What”s interesting here is Trump is not used to not controlling things,” Megyn Kelly observed on her show Tuesday night before adding, “but the truth is, he doesn’t get to control the media.”

But Donald Trump, being what he is, does not believe so. “Let’s see how do they do with the debate,” he said. “Let’s see how many people watch.”

[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]