--- title: Trump: Proposes $5 Million Fee for Showing Up at CNN Debate description: The businessman put a price on his participation at the coming CNN Republican debate: $5 million. canonical: https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-01T05:32:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:01.053Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Proposes $5 Million Fee for Showing Up at CNN Debate og:description: He also threatened to change his joking-style og:url: https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ada3e2cf13f488e/698873380a4a2217fa9c743b/gettyimages-498513912.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GettyImages-498513912 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Proposes $5 Million Fee for Showing Up at CNN Debate twitter:description: He also threatened to change his joking-style twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ada3e2cf13f488e/698873380a4a2217fa9c743b/gettyimages-498513912.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Proposes $5 Million Ransom for Showing Up at CNN Debate ## Video: Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7MzTpVq2.m3u8) (1:21)  _Published 2015-07-23. Donald Trump's Most Ridiculous Quotes_ by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 1, 2015 5:32 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 23, 2015 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 23, 2015Ty Wright—Getty Images by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 1, 2015 5:32 AM UTC MACON, Georgia — Donald Trump says he isn’t joking anymore. The front-running GOP presidential candidate, who often has crowds laughing during his rallies, threatened to change his joking-style because it results in him being misrepresented — both in the press and in attack ads from his opponents. “They take two second snippets,” he exclaimed before settling back into his usual style, comedy included. But that’s not the only threat Trump levied. In a chilly arena that was transformed from an ice rink into an event space by laying down plastic tiles to cover the rink floor, the businessman put a price on his participation… [_Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-proposes-5-million-ransom-showing-cnn-debate-n471786?cid=par-time%5F20151201) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/"},"headline":"Trump Proposes $5 Million Ransom for Showing Up at CNN Debate","datePublished":"2015-12-01T05:32:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:01.053Z","description":"\"There's only one way to get to the top and it's all through Trump\"","url":"https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","CNN","2016","GOP","Donald Trump","Republican","candidate","presidential debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ada3e2cf13f488e/698873380a4a2217fa9c743b/gettyimages-498513912.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ada3e2cf13f488e/698873380a4a2217fa9c743b/gettyimages-498513912.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-498513912","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 23, 2015","creditText":"Ty Wright—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/","name":"Trump Proposes $5 Million Ransom for Showing Up at CNN Debate"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump","description":"Donald Trump's Most Ridiculous Quotes","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7MzTpVq2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-23T21:38:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7MzTpVq2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/","duration":"PT1M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```