Former President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would not participate.
In another debate with Vice President Kamala Harris before the November 5 election, dismissing her call for a rematch as a sign of defeat.
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump asserted that Harris’s request for another debate indicated she had lost their debate on Tuesday and was seeking a second chance to recover.
“Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate,” Trump wrote. He added, “There will be no third debate,” referring to his previous encounters — the first against President Joe Biden in June, followed by Tuesday’s debate with Kamala Harris.
While Trump cited unnamed polls suggesting his victory, surveys conducted by mainstream media outlets tell a different story. A CNN poll found that 63% of debate viewers believed Harris won, compared to 37% who sided with Trump. Similarly, a YouGov poll indicated that 43% of respondents thought Harris had outperformed Trump, with 28% favouring the former president and 30% remaining undecided.
The Harris campaign seized on what it described as post-debate momentum, claiming it had raised USD 47 million within 24 hours after the Tuesday debate — the strongest fundraising performance since Harris announced her candidacy.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is set to debate Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, on October 1 in New York.