Roughly eight years after refusing to pledge support to the GOP’s 2016 presidential nominee, Donald Trump appears to be pulling the exact same stunt for 2024. “I wouldn’t sign the pledge,” he said of the requirement in a Newsmax interview Wednesday. “Why would I sign a pledge if there are people on there that I wouldn’t have?” While signing the Republican National Committee’s loyalty pledge is necessary for any candidate who wishes to participate in the first Republican presidential debate, the former president has yet to commit to the race’s inaugural debate stage later this month.
During the Newsmax interview, Trump—who initially signed the loyalty pledge in 2016 but later balked at it after taking a commanding lead—explained that there are “three or four” Republican hopefuls he would not support in a general election. Despite declining to name-check those candidates—“There’s no reason to insult them,” he said Wednesday—he did use the opportunity to criticize Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson. He also praised a pair of other primary rivals in the same breath, noting that South Carolina senator Tim Scott and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy “have been very nice.”
Trump is not the only Republican candidate to reject the pledge. In June, Will Hurd, a moderate conservative and former congressman, cited Trump as his reason for not signing the pledge. “I am not in the business of lying to the American people in order to get a microphone,” he said. “I’m not going to support Donald Trump, so I can’t honestly say I’m going to sign something.”
Likewise, Christie and Hutchinson have questioned the utility of the pledge. But RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has defended its role as a predebate requirement: “It’s the Republican Party nomination, and the pledge is staying and anybody who wants to seek the nomination of our party should pledge to support the voters,” McDaniel said last month.
As for Trump’s debate plans, his campaign has previously called the ex-president’s participation “unlikely” without ruling it out entirely. “I’d like to do it,” Trump told Newsmax Wednesday. “I’ve actually gotten very good marks on debating talents. But you want to be, you know, they want a smart president. They want somebody that’s going to be smart. So we have to do the smart thing.”
The first debate for the Republican primary will be moderated by Fox News. It will air on August 23 in Milwaukee and will likely feature Christie, DeSantis, Scott, former vice president Mike Pence, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, Ramaswamy, and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum. The event is likely to be a significant ratings boon for Fox, which has seen lagging prime-time numbers since its April cancellation of Tucker Carlson‘s show, according to a Media Matters report.
The party’s second debate will be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on September 27 and will air on Fox Business.
Caleb Ecarma
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