Fox News debate hosts Bret Baier and Martha McCallum talked with Politico about the debate coming up Wednesday night, suggesting that even if Trump isn’t at the debate, he’ll still be part of the questioning.

Here’s more from Politico:

As the first GOP primary debate creeps ever closer, all eyes are — as they have been for much of the race so far — on Donald Trump.

The former president has publicly weighed the pros and cons of facing his opponents on the debate stage in Milwaukee next week, calling it a potentially “stupid” idea and polling crowds on their opinions during his campaign rallies.

But even if Trump does ditch the event in favor of his own counterprogramming, as he’s suggested he will, his presence will inevitably loom large, Fox News’ debate moderators say.

“If he’s not there, he’ll still be there,” FOX host Bret Baier said in an interview. “In other words, he’ll be a part of questioning. There may be sound bites, there may be elements where ‘this is what the leader of the primary says about this issue.’ He’ll be there, even if he’s not there.”

Baier and his fellow moderator, Martha MacCallum, are preparing for both scenarios.

“For the most part, we talk about subjects as buckets of questions,” Baier said. “The buckets wouldn’t change that much whether he’s in or not. Maybe some of the interaction between candidates would change a bit.”

MacCallum said: “We will have questions for every candidate up there, including former President Trump if he decides to join us.”

There will only be eight candidates at the debate:

As of Tuesday, eight candidates had met the RNC’s polling and donor requirements to be on the first debate stage. In addition to Trump, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott and Doug Burgum have all reached the RNC’s benchmarks. Asa Hutchinson has met the polling requirement, while Francis Suarez and Perry Johnson have both racked up the necessary donors.

Both Baier and MacCallum said they didn’t expect other candidates would qualify before the deadline, but “there’s still time for that to change,” MacCallum told POLITICO.

Of course he’ll be there in some form or fashion. He’s both the former president and the leader in the Republican primary. To ignore him completely would be irresponsible.