--- 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: 2026-10-05T08:41:32.048Z 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1716 og:image:height: 965 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Proposes $5 Million Ransom for Showing Up at CNN Debate > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=18c72c90-f55e-4cd8-b76b-98e547f00be9&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## 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 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) ## Transcript Rosie O'Donnell's disgusting, I mean both inside and out. You take a look at her, she's a slob. She talks like a truck driver. So he could have been born in Kenya and gone over to the United States. And everybody wants to be a US citizen. And his grandparents put an ad in saying he was born in the United States. He didn't kill Bin Laden. He gets so much credit for that. Ok excuse me. He had the guts to make that decision. And the genius. Excuse me. Guts. First of all Vince, your grapefruits are no match for my Trump Towers. They're bringing drugs They're bringing crime, they're rapist, and some I assume are good people, and I love the Mexican people. I've had thousands of Mexicans working for me. I sell apartments for millions of dollars to people from Mexico. They love me, they love me. [ CROSSTALK ]. He's a war hero cuz he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay? I hate to tell you this. And I see your Senator. What a stiff? What a Stiff? Lindsay Graham. I'm not using the lobbyists, I'm not using donors. I don't care. I'm really rich. I show you that in this suit. ```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":"2026-10-05T08:41:32.048Z","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","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 Trump Demand CNN Pay Him $5 Million for the Next Debate","description":"He says he would donate the money to charity","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rI3B0HlL/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-01T05:53:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rI3B0HlL.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/","duration":"PT1M13S","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"}},{"@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"}}] ```