‘Sparks will fly’: Trump interview with Tucker on X will air at same time as RNC debates

Leading up to the debate, Trump had suggested he would not be participating at all, offering his massive lead in polling as a reason to decline. Later last week the former president confirmed he would not attend and announced he would instead do the interview with Carlson. The decision was also viewed as a strike at Fox because of Carlson’s earlier firing.

On his Truth Social profile on Wednesday, he announced that the time of the interview with Carlson to be taking place at the same time as the Republican primary debate, at 9 pm.

In an X post, Carlson said "Whatever you think of Trump, he is, as of tonight, the indisputable far and away front runner in the Republican race. We think voters have an interest in hearing what he thinks."

"So when Trump approached us about having a conversation for a far larger audience than he'd received on cable news, we happily accepted. That interview will air tonight in this space at 8:55."

Leading up to the debate, it was suggested that Trump's surrogates would not have access to the debate spin room on Wednesday as he had decided not to join the other candidates on stage.

After the report, it was later confirmed that his surrogates would be given credentials to attend, although Fox would not be providing the credentials, rather the RNC would still honor the credentialed tickets that Trump's surrogates had already obtained.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz confirmed that that RNC would be allowing the Trump surrogates into the spin room.

The surrogates are to include Donald Trump Junior and his fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle. Other supporters of Trump that will be attending include Kari Lake, and Florida Reps. Byron Donalds and Matt Gaetz.

On stage at the debate for tonight will include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and former Vice President Mike Pence.