BREAKING: Trump Reveals Plans To Counter CNN’s GOP Debate

Fox News announced on Tuesday that it will be partnering with former President Donald Trump to launch a counter program to the fifth GOP presidential debate, set to take place next week on January 10th.

In its announcement, the network previewed a televised town hall to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, and moderated by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. The event will air in the same 9:00-10:00 p.m. time slot as the CNN presidential debate. Fox billed the event as having a “focus on the leading issues facing voters ahead of the Iowa Caucus.

“The town hall marks the first time the former president will sit with Baier and MacCallum jointly since May 2020. In June 2023, Baier received praise on both sides of the aisle for his interview with former President Trump,” Fox wrote, adding that the two anchors most recently oversaw the first GOP debate in Milwaukee which earned over 13 million viewers, the “most-watched debate of the 2024 cycle.”

Fox News and Trump are counter programming the CNN Iowa debate with a town hall in Des Moines.

Same starting time of 9pm. pic.twitter.com/hbFi1FHX5l

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 2, 2024

The fifth debate is the first of the cycle not to be recognized by the Republican National Committee after party leadership faced tremendous outside pressure to wind down the presidential nominating contest after months of President Trump’s polling leads going unchallenged. Vivek Ramaswamy, who has openly waged war against RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, has largely echoed the grassroots’ pro-Trump sentiment in a posture that has observers believing he is angling for a spot on the former president’s ticket.

President Trump’s decision to join forces with Fox also represents a thawing in the chilly relationship between the Republican and the once-friendly network. For months, Fox co-founder Rupert Murdoch was openly courting Ron DeSantis before bailing on him in favor of Ramaswamy, all while ordering his network to downplay President Trump’s reel of campaign trail highlights. Viewers, upset with Fox’s ambivalence toward Trump, have abandoned the network in droves as it fell behind MSNBC in the ratings for the first time.

If history is a guide, the 45th President’s town hall will likely exceed the viewership for CNN’s debate, as was the case with the competing interview he did with Tucker Carlson during Fox’s first debate. He has openly bragged about being up by “too many points” to risk elevating his rivals by joining them onstage, preferring instead to court blue-collar union voters or hold fundraisers, both arguably more beneficial to him than tangling with the “JV team” of GOP also-rans.