--- description: Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that he will participate in the next Republican debate on CNN. title: Donald Trump Says He'll Join CNN Debate—for Free image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt971cd273b8bd82e2/698873afbc6cfcbdbd3daa7c/donald-trump-republican-jewish-coalition.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Donald Trump Says He'll Join CNN Debate—for Free  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 3, 2015 8:57 PM CUT  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally December 2, 2015 in Manassas, Virginia. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally December 2, 2015 in Manassas, Virginia.Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 3, 2015 8:57 PM CUT Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that he will participate in the next Republican presidential debate on CNN, after floating the idea that he wouldn’t join his rivals on stage unless the network gave $5 million to charity. “How about I tell CNN, who doesn’t treat me properly … I’m not gonna do the next debate, okay?” [he said in Georgia](http://time.com/4130436/donald-trump-republican-debate-fee/ "undefined") this week. “I won’t do the debate unless they pay me $5 million, all of which goes to Wounded Warriors or goes to vets.” [This was something Trump had talked about before](http://time.com/trump/ "undefined"), and he likely wasn’t serious— he admitted he didn’t want to back out of the debate for fear of being called “chicken.” But he unequivocally [confirmed to the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/03/after-grumbling-trump-says-he-will-participate-in-cnn-debate/?postshare=6251449174784578&tid=ss%5Ftw-bottom "undefined") that he will be on the debate stage Dec. 15\. “When you’re leading in the polls, I think it’s too big of a risk to not do the debate,” he said. “I don’t think I have the kind of leverage I’d like to have in a deal and I don’t want to take the chance of hurting my campaign. So I’ll do the debate.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4135482/donald-trump-cnn-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4135482/donald-trump-cnn-debate/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says He'll Join CNN Debate—for Free","datePublished":"2015-12-03T20:57:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:06:16.027Z","description":"He had raised the possibility of a $5 million ransom for charity for his presence","url":"https://time.com/4135482/donald-trump-cnn-debate/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt971cd273b8bd82e2/698873afbc6cfcbdbd3daa7c/donald-trump-republican-jewish-coalition.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/blt971cd273b8bd82e2/698873afbc6cfcbdbd3daa7c/donald-trump-republican-jewish-coalition.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally December 2, 2015 in Manassas, Virginia.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally December 2, 2015 in Manassas, Virginia.","creditText":"Alex Wong—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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4135482/donald-trump-cnn-debate/","name":"Donald Trump Says He'll Join CNN Debate—for Free"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Donald Trump Talk About Law Enforcement at the California Shooting at a Virginia Rally","description":"He praised law enforcement around the U.S.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/j1wQycWH/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-03T02:05:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j1wQycWH.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4135482/donald-trump-cnn-debate/","duration":"PT48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4135482/donald-trump-cnn-debate/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```