WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;on Sunday said&nbsp;he&nbsp;would skip the&nbsp;upcoming&nbsp;Republican&nbsp;primary&nbsp;debates, citing his large lead in opinion polls as evidence that&nbsp;he&nbsp;was already well-known and liked by voters ahead of the&nbsp;2024 election.
Trump&nbsp;has for months suggested&nbsp;he&nbsp;would likely pass on Wednesday night's debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, arguing that it did not make sense to give his&nbsp;Republican&nbsp;rivals a chance to attack him given his sizeable lead in national polls.
On Sunday, a CBS poll showed&nbsp;he&nbsp;was the&nbsp;preferred candidate for 62% of&nbsp;Republican&nbsp;voters, with his closest rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 16%. All other candidates in the&nbsp;primary race had less than 10% support.
"The&nbsp;public knows who I am &amp; what a successful Presidency I had,"&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;said on his social media app, Truth Social. "I will therefore not be doing the&nbsp;debates."
The&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;campaign did not immediately respond to a question asking if the&nbsp;former president meant&nbsp;he&nbsp;won't&nbsp;be taking&nbsp;part&nbsp;in any of the&nbsp;Republican&nbsp;debates.
The&nbsp;New York Times reported that&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;sat for a taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that was expected to be posted online on Wednesday. It was not yet clear where the&nbsp;interview with Carlson will be posted.
Trump's absence from this week's debate could mean DeSantis will become the&nbsp;focus of attacks from other candidates looking to position themselves as the&nbsp;primary alternative to the&nbsp;former president. The&nbsp;winner of the&nbsp;Republican&nbsp;nominating fight will&nbsp;take&nbsp;on Democratic President Joe Biden in the&nbsp;November 2024 election.
DeSantis campaign spokesperson Andrew Romeo said the&nbsp;Florida governor was looking forward to being in Milwaukee to share his vision for a possible presidency.
"No one is entitled to this nomination, including Donald&nbsp;Trump. You have to show up and earn it," Romeo said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the&nbsp;most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll released this month,&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;held 47% of the&nbsp;Republican&nbsp;vote nationally, with DeSantis dropping six percentage points from July down to just 13%. None of the&nbsp;other candidates due to attend the&nbsp;debate have broken out of single digits.
Trump&nbsp;has a Friday deadline to voluntarily surrender in Fulton County, Georgia, after being charged last week in a fourth criminal indictment, for an alleged scheme intended to reverse his 2020 election loss to Biden.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne and James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Diane Craft)

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Trump says he won't take part in Republican debates