As former President Donald Trump continues to weigh taking the first Republican presidential debate stage on Aug. 23, several GOP operatives warned against him attending to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Trump is considering skipping the first two presidential debates held by the Republican National Committee, and might hold a countering event instead, citing his massive lead in the polls. The Republican consultants and analysts argued that Trump shouldn’t participate in the first debate, and told the DCNF his decision wouldn’t affect his massive lead in the primary.

“He won’t debate, he shouldn’t debate, it’s not in his interest to debate politically speaking,” Mark Weaver, a GOP consultant who heads Politics Counsel, told the DCNF.

[That’s probably true in the most transactional sense possible — but definitely misses the point. The debates are supposed to be for the benefit of the *voters*. This is an open primary, and GOP voters need to test all of the potential candidates (to the extent that debates actually test them, but that’s a different issue). That may be especially true for Trump, who not only lost his last national election but also had most of his personally recruited Senate candidates in 2022 lose as well. Those who do show up on stage should take care to point out that Trump still seems far more interested in his own welfare than that of the voters. — Ed]