Former President Donald Trump said his independent interview with Tucker Carlson, which appeared on social media platform X on Wednesday night, had over 100 million views in less than four hours.
By Thursday morning, that total increased to more than 154 million views, over 153,000 reposts, and more than 537,000 likes, and it continues to grow by the second.
Trump did not attend the nationally broadcast Republican National Committee primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but granted Carlson an interview broadcast on X simultaneously.
Eight GOP 2024 hopefuls took the stage at the Fiserv Forum in the first televised presidential race debate.
During his interview, Trump said that the discussion on the "crazy forum" would get better "ratings" than the debate and that he decided not to attend because of his massive lead in the polls.
"The polls have come out, and I'm leading by 50 and 60 [percentage] points," Trump said. "Do I sit there for one or two hours, whatever it's going to be, and get harassed by people who shouldn't even be running for president?"
According to the FiveThirtyEight polling website, Trump leads Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 52.1% to 15.2%.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy comes in third at 9.7%, followed by former Vice President Mike Pence at 4.3%.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is at 3.6% followed by his state's former governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley at 3.4%, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 3.3%.
The two other candidates rounding out those attending the debate, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, are both polling below 1%, the website shows.
Trump and the eight other candidates met the required RNC polling and fundraising criteria to participate in the forum.
"I just felt it more appropriate not to do the debate," Trump said. "I don't think it is right to do it. If you are leading by 50-60, in one poll I'm leading by 70 [percentage] points, I'm saying 'why am I doing it?'"
Trump also said that the Fox News network, which hosted the debate, has not treated him fairly as of recently and was supporting rival DeSantis.
"It reminded me very much of 2016," he said. "In 2016, I went through the same stuff and had to fight them all the way, and then they became very friendly after I won."
Charles Kim ✉
Charles Kim, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years in reporting on news and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.