--- title: Trump Backs Down on Fox Debate Boycott description: Trump ended his feud with the network, after skipping a debate in Iowa—and losing the caucus to Ted Cruz. canonical: https://time.com/4209865/donald-trump-ends-fox-feud/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-05T19:06:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:49:04.587Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Backs Down on Fox Debate Boycott og:description: Trump ended his feud with the network, after skipping a debate in Iowa—and losing the caucus to Ted Cruz. og:url: https://time.com/4209865/donald-trump-ends-fox-feud/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d64217dddf72232/69887c38f887dc4f2be94767/donald-trump-brags.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Great Bay Community College on February 4, 2016 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Backs Down on Fox Debate Boycott twitter:description: Trump ended his feud with the network, after skipping a debate in Iowa—and losing the caucus to Ted Cruz. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d64217dddf72232/69887c38f887dc4f2be94767/donald-trump-brags.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Backs Down on Fox News Debate Boycott by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 5, 2016 7:06 PM UTC  Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Great Bay Community College on February 4, 2016 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Great Bay Community College on February 4, 2016 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.Andrew Burton—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 5, 2016 7:06 PM UTC Donald Trump seems to have [ended his feud with Fox News](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/02/05/trump-fox-debate-detroit-kelly/79878226/). After [skipping a debate](http://time.com/4195194/donald-trump-skip-fox-debate/) in Iowa following a back-and-forth with Fox and then coming in second [to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz](http://time.com/4203690/iowa-caucuses-ted-cruz/) in the Iowa caucuses, Trump says he won’t be boycotting the next Fox News sponsored Republican debate, the candidate said on the [Steve Malzberg radio show.](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/02/05/trump-fox-debate-detroit-kelly/79878226/) “I’ll be there, I have no objection to being there,” Trump said Friday. The network announced this week that it will host a March 3rd Republican debate in Detroit. On Thursday Megyn Kelly—the Fox News anchor [whom Trump previously said had treated him unfairly](http://time.com/4196506/republican-debate-donald-trump-megyn-kelly-fox-news/)—told Jimmy Fallon that she thought Trump skipping the debate contributed to his defeat in Iowa. “I think he thinks it hurt him,” Kelly said. “It was basically his last job interview with the Iowans and he skipped it.” When asked about the Detroit debate and Fox News, Trump pointed the finger at the network rather than its host. “That had nothing to do with Megyn Kelly,” Trump said. “The fact that I went out of the last one had to do with a memo that was sent out by Fox that was a little bit taunting and I said it was inappropriate.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4209865/donald-trump-ends-fox-feud/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4209865/donald-trump-ends-fox-feud/"},"headline":"Trump Backs Down on Fox News Debate Boycott","datePublished":"2016-02-05T19:06:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:49:04.587Z","description":"Trump ended his feud with the network, after losing the Iowa Caucus","url":"https://time.com/4209865/donald-trump-ends-fox-feud/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump","Debates"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d64217dddf72232/69887c38f887dc4f2be94767/donald-trump-brags.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d64217dddf72232/69887c38f887dc4f2be94767/donald-trump-brags.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Great Bay Community College on February 4, 2016 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.","caption":"Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Great Bay Community College on February 4, 2016 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.","creditText":"Andrew Burton—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/4209865/donald-trump-ends-fox-feud/","name":"Trump Backs Down on Fox News Debate Boycott"}}]}] ```