DES MOINES, Iowa – Donald Trump emerged larger than the presidential campaign itself Thursday night, daringly ditching the final nationally televised Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses to stage his own rally, which commanded at least as much attention as the debate itself. Trump, the GOP front-runner according to polling in each of the first three nominating states, not only defied conventional political wisdom by skipping the debate, but with his absence spurned the country’s most watched cable news channel and most influential media outlet among conservatives, Fox News. “I didn’t want to be here, I’ve got to be honest,” Trump said as he took the stage inside an academic hall on the campus of Drake University 15 minutes after the seventh Republican debate got underway just 2 miles away. The New York City billionaire said Fox had been “extremely nice the last couple of hours,” as the network and its high-profile hosts, like Bill O’Reilly, attempted a fierce lobbying effort to convince Trump to reconsider. But Trump told his guests his gambit served a larger lesson, in life and in politics.



“When you’re treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights,” he said. The candidate then compared his act to how he would handle Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “We have to stick up for our country when we’re being mistreated,” he said.

Trump’s debate boycott eliminated the opportunity for a final face-off ahead of the caucuses with his increasingly bitter rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who has been warning voters that a Trump victory in Iowa on Monday night could swiftly propel him to the nomination.

A Trump-less debate stage might’ve made it more difficult for his adversaries to land a clean punch.

“Trump winning debate so far because Cruz has had an awkward first 40 minutes,” tweeted National Review editor Rich Lowry.

But at least two of Trump’s own rivals saw the reality show star’s counterprogramming as an opportunity to be seized.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, lagging at single digits in polling, each showed up at Trump’s event after participating in the undercard debate. They appeared on stage for several minutes and delivered remarks, earning Trump’s praise.

“I’m supporting another candidate for president,” Santorum said, visibly leaning away from the podium adorned with a blue Trump banner. “That doesn’t mean we can’t work together when it comes to helping our veterans.”





Huckabee said it would be easier for Trump to ignore any other candidate who cares about veterans and then released a quip that underscored his long-shot position in the race.

“I have nothing to do at 8 o’clock. This worked great for me,” he said, eliciting laughter.

What at first looked like a dicey move by Trump increasingly is being described as a feat of strength by a once-in-a-generation candidate who has shattered the traditional political playbook.



“It’s a display of strength and confidence,” Republican consultant Alex Castellanos wrote in an e-mail this week. “I doubt Trump’s boycott will be received, as some suspect, as a petulant candidate ducking a debate. Who believes Donald Trump is afraid? Instead, they see Trump confidently taking a risk no other Republican would consider.”

“He will come out the winner of this whole tit for tat with Fox News,” says Keith Gilkes, a Wisconsin Republican consultant who steered the super PAC supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s White House campaign. “Everyone, including the other candidates, will lose.”

A Public Policy Polling survey of the Iowa caucuses taken Tuesday and Wednesday showed Trump with an 8-point advantage over Cruz, 31 percent to 23 percent. Perhaps most crucially, Trump commands the most dedicated supporters of the field. Eighty-percent of his voters say they’re firmly committed to him, compared to 71 percent of Cruz’s and 65 percent of those supporting Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

While some critics have posited that Trump’s debate diss could irk undecided Iowa voters used to being courted, the polling shows that Trump is now most dependent on making sure his hardcore fans show up. Trump didn’t seem nervous about potential fallout from his decision. “Who the hell knows?” he pondered aloud.

The Trump campaign billed the event as a way to honor veterans, and the candidate announced having raised nearly $6 million for wounded warriors in a little more than 24 hours, including a personal donation of $1 million.

John Wayne Walding, a disabled veteran with combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, took a dig at Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s email controversy, but otherwise spoke about the issues veterans grapple with on a daily basis.

He told veterans who struggle with depression after coming back from war, “You owe it to the fallen to live well. Think about that.”

The rest of the program was a typical Trump rally, with the man himself standing in the center of the stage, alone and basking in the limelight.

As is par for the course, he was interrupted twice by protesters, in this instance chanting, “We love veterans. Trump loves war.”



He boasted about his poll standing and he took a shot at his favorite foil, Jeb Bush, by impersonating what he might be thinking on the debate stage without Trump next to him.

“Has anyone seen Trump? Where is he?” Trump mocked.

Later, Trump said of the event taking place not even a 10-minute drive away: “They’re all sleeping, they’re all sleeping everybody.”

What’s unclear is how Trump and Fox will get along going forward. Trump was irked by a Fox News statement earlier this week mocking his threat to skip the debate because of his feud with anchor Megyn Kelly. That was enough for him to pull the trigger, but the two parties have appeared to reconcile.

“They did apologize,” Trump said, without being specific.

But on this night, he was soaking up having outfoxed everyone gunning for him.

The Trump campaign said it doled out 350 media credentials, and many reporters placed in a filing room had to sit on the floor because the space ran out of chairs.

“We’re actually told that we have more cameras than they do by quite a bit,” Trump bragged, without possibly being able to know.

But that didn’t matter. Trump had won another night by making one of the biggest nights of the 2016 campaign his own.

“It’s like the Academy Awards,” he said.



