Former President Donald Trump’s campaign declared victory in the first 2024 GOP primary debate nearly nine hours before it started.

Trump will not be joining the eight candidates onstage Wednesday night in Milwaukee for the Republican National Committee’s debate on Fox News, opting instead for an interview with Tucker Carlson as counterprogramming.

DEBATE: WITH FRONT-RUNNER TRUMP OUT, WILL GOP VOTERS TUNE IN?

“President Trump has already won this evening’s debate because everything is going to be about him,” Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita said in a statement. “Only President Trump has the policy ideas, the fortitude, and the polling to go head-to-head with Crooked Joe Biden in the general election. Republican voters recognize this, hence President Trump’s 62-16 lead in the GOP primary.”

LaCivita added that “tonight’s Republican undercard event really shouldn’t even be called a debate, but rather an audition to be a part of President Trump’s team in his second term.”

The Trump campaign was also critical of Fox News.

“You should also expect the Fox hosts to show an unnatural obsession with President Trump tonight, asking other Republican candidates over and over to react to President Trump’s policy positions,” LaCivita said. “In fact, we will be tallying the number of times President Trump’s name is brought up, and his total ‘speaking time,’ even though he is not in attendance.”

Carlson was a Fox News prime-time host until his ouster prompted him to move the show to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“When the other candidates do get a chance to speak, they will be a faint echo, or maybe even a copycat, of President Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda,” LaCivita said. “That’s because President Trump’s first four years in office were the most consequential — and led to the best economy — in American history.”

Trump’s absence is seen as an opportunity for the other candidates to make their case to voters outside of his shadow.

But Trump enjoys a commanding lead in national and early state polls, though he is under 50% in the first primaries and caucuses.

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Trump hopes to starve the other candidates of media attention and marginalize them to maintain his lead.

The former president’s rivals point to polls suggesting that most Republicans, including majorities of Trump voters, want him to debate.