Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Eric Bolling on Newsmax Wednesday night. During the course of the interview on the “Eric Bolling The Balance” show, the subject of the first Republican primary debate came up.

The debate is only a couple of weeks away now and it’s time for the candidates to get serious about whether or not they intend to participate. They all want to do so but some have not met the requirements to have a place on the stage. Eight candidates have qualified so far. Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, and Mike Pence have met the polling and campaign contribution requirements.

This week some of them are beginning to sign the RNC loyalty pledge, also a requirement to be on the debate stage. The pledge is one that states the candidate pledges to support the eventual nominee. As of this morning, as I write this, the only two candidates that have signed the pledge are Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy. Look for the others to do the same soon. Everyone but Donald Trump, that is. He told Eric Bolling he will not sign the pledge.

“I have a problem with the debate for another reason: I wouldn’t sign the pledge,” Trump told Wednesday’s “Eric Bolling The Balance” in a 42-minute interview from his summer home in Bedminster, New Jersey. “Why would I sign a pledge? There are people on there that I wouldn’t have.

“I wouldn’t have certain people as, you know, somebody that I endorse. So they want you to sign a pledge.”

“I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president,” Trump told Bolling. “So right there, there’s a problem right there. There’s a problem.”

Trump wouldn’t say which three or four he wouldn’t support for president. Who do you think they might be? I think it’s DeSantis, Christie, Asa Hutchinson, and Will Hurd. I don’t think Hutchinson and Hurd matter because I don’t think they will be in the primary for long and they aren’t going to make the debate stage. All four are candidates who have been critical of Trump. Not so much DeSantis (he is only now starting to speak out about Trump) but Trump considers DeSantis to be disloyal, so that’s a big no-no in Trump’s mind. And Christie? That is a complicated relationship. They are frenemies. They’ve been friends for decades but there are times when they have been competitors and that throws the relationship off. Remember, Christie was a candidate in 2015. He duked it out with Trump as well as the others. Then he turned around and sought a position in the Trump administration. He wanted to be Attorney General. Trump denied him that job. Then Christie helped Trump in 2020 and was a part of Trump’s debate prep against Biden. He was a supporter up until Trump’s reaction to the 2020 election loss. Now he is out to stop Trump from winning the nomination.

Trump said he has made his decision on whether or not he’ll participate in the debate. He won’t make his decision public until next week. He doesn’t want to give the other candidates a shot at him on the debate stage, that much is clear. Trump knows that he’ll jeopardize his substantial lead if he’s on stage with the others, allowing voters to size everyone up at one time.

Also, Trump asked, “what’s the upside” of giving also-rans polling with “2%, 1% or zero %?”

“They could go up,” Trump said. “You know, they’re not dumb people. They’re senators. They’re governors. They’re intelligent people. You have some very good people, I think.”

Trump held out to the end in 2015 before he agreed to sign the RNC pledge. He likes the drama. There is a part of me that thinks he’ll skip the debate because he wants to hold a competing event to distract voters from watching the debate. That, however, I think will backfire on him. He doesn’t realize (or, he just won’t acknowledge) that Republican voters are ready for a change. His most loyal supporters will stay with him, no matter what, and they will vote in the primary. Trump focuses on national polls, not state polls, and that is a mistake. We don’t have national elections. He has to win state by state. Another part of me thinks his ego is too big to miss the debate. He wants to say he won the debate and conquered his challengers. I’ll just have to wait with everyone else to find out his decision.

Ronna McDaniel says that the candidates have to sign the pledge to participate in the debate.

“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 on Fox News last month.

Will Hurd has already said he won’t sign the pledge. Hutchinson and Christie have cast doubts on whether or not they will sign.

Any candidate who will not sign the pledge should not be the Republican nominee. Yes, the pledge is dumb and juvenile, but we are in a place where the RNC has to ask that candidates promise to support the eventual nominee. It’s a shame that there are those who will not support the nominee because that throws a vote toward Joe Biden or whoever the Democrat nominee is in 2024. Suck it up and do what is best for the country. No one political candidate is more important that our country.

If Republicans are to save the country, we have to win in 2024. We have to hold the House, flip the Senate, and win the White House. Otherwise, we are stuck with four more years with Biden and Kamala or Gavin Newsom. We’ve seen the damage that leftists cause. We are all living through Bidenflation, Bidenomics, and all the other destructive consequences of a president hellbent to spend us into oblivion in order to buy as many votes as possible. He’s responsible for our open southern border, energy dependence on nefarious world leaders, deadly foreign policy that disgraces the United States on the world stage, and he is too old and demented to avoid being a laughingstock overseas. If all that doesn’t bother you, then go right ahead and be a single candidate voter come hell or high water. The rest of us have to suck it up and vote for the winner of the primary in order to win in November 2024. I know that pisses off the only-Trumpers but that is the truth. Trump may win the nomination and it will be on Republicans to support him against Biden. The alternative is too dangerous for the country.

No politician is owed loyalty.