--- title: Donald Trump Campaign Threatens To Boycott Next Debate description: An aide to Donald Trump raised the possibility that the candidate wouldn't attend the next Republican debate unless the rules are changed. canonical: https://time.com/4075539/trump-boycott-debate/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-15T18:43:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:50:39.265Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Campaign Threatens to Boycott Next Debate og:description: The debate will be held on October 28 og:url: https://time.com/4075539/trump-boycott-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80f4cfefeb80a065/6988685dcf40a80e77c4034b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Oct. 8, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Campaign Threatens to Boycott Next Debate twitter:description: The debate will be held on October 28 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80f4cfefeb80a065/6988685dcf40a80e77c4034b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Campaign Threatens to Boycott Next Republican Debate  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 15, 2015 6:43 PM CUT  Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Oct. 8, 2015. Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Oct. 8, 2015.Isaac Brekken—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 15, 2015 6:43 PM CUT An aide to Donald Trump raised the possibility that the candidate wouldn’t attend the next Republican debate unless the rules are changed. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, [told the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/15/donald-trump-campaign-raises-specter-of-boycotting-next-debate/ "undefined"), “The criteria that was outlined by CNBC was never discussed with any of the candidates or the campaigns. So what CNBC did was send out a memo and said, ‘Here’s the criteria as you have approved them and that went out to all the campaigns. We said we never agreed to this criteria.’” Other campaigns have also expressed dissatisfaction with CNBC’s rules for the debate, which exclude opening and closing statements and don’t specify a length of time for the program. Lewandowski said it would be “imperative” for Trump to have the time set to 120 minutes. The third Republican debate on CNBC is set to be held on October 28 at the Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colorado. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/15/donald-trump-campaign-raises-specter-of-boycotting-next-debate/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4075539/trump-boycott-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4075539/trump-boycott-debate/"},"headline":"Trump Campaign Threatens to Boycott Next Republican Debate","datePublished":"2015-10-15T18:43:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:50:39.265Z","description":"The debate will be held on October 28","url":"https://time.com/4075539/trump-boycott-debate/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80f4cfefeb80a065/6988685dcf40a80e77c4034b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80f4cfefeb80a065/6988685dcf40a80e77c4034b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Oct. 8, 2015.","caption":"Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Oct. 8, 2015.","creditText":"Isaac Brekken—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/4075539/trump-boycott-debate/","name":"Trump Campaign Threatens to Boycott Next Republican Debate"}}]}] ```