Updated 3:23 p.m. ET

Ron Paul has a message for Donald Trump: You're fired as a GOP presidential debate moderator.

The Texas congressman's campaign said today he will not participate in a Dec. 27 debate hosted by the conservative Newsmax website because the participation of the real estate mogul and host of NBC's The Apprentice is "wildly inappropriate."

"The selection of a reality television personality to host a presidential debate that voters nationwide will be watching is beneath the office of the Presidency and flies in the face of that office's history and dignity," Jesse Benton, Paul's national campaign chairman, said in a statement.

Trump fired back in a statement. It reads in part:

As I said in the past and will reiterate again, Ron Paul has a zero chance of winning either the nomination or the Presidency ... Few people take Ron Paul seriously and many of his views and presentation make him a clown-like candidate.

Benton says Trump dissed the Iowa Republican Party when he reneged on a commitment to headline a big fundraising dinner after Trump decided he would no longer seek the presidency. Benton said that caused "embarrassment" to the Iowa GOP, which will host the first presidential caucuses of the 2012 campaign Jan. 3.

"Our candidate will not even consider participating in the late-December debate until Mr. Trump publicly apologizes to Iowa party leaders and rectifies in full the situation," Benton said.

There is no love lost between Paul and Trump. At the Conservative Political Action Conference this year, when Trump floated his candidacy, he proclaimed that Paul had "zero chance" of getting elected president, which drew boos from the Paul supporters in the audience.

Paul shot back that he's been elected in Texas 11 times -- something Trump hasn't even accomplished once.

The Dec. 27 debate was announced Friday. Jon Huntsman has also declined an invitation.

Trump said he is "glad" that Paul "and Jon Huntsman, who has inconsequential poll numbers or a chance of winning, will not be attending the debate and wasting the time of the viewers who are trying very hard to make a very important decision."

He concludes: "Why is a person who has built a more than $7 billion net worth, with more than $270 million in cash ... not the right person to lead this country out of economic chaos or at least to moderate a debate?"

Stay tuned.