Pressure Mounts for Trump as Republican Debate Stage Grows

Two additional presidential hopefuls have reached the number of individual donors needed to qualify for the GOP primary debate next month, although it remains unclear if front-runner and former President Donald Trump will participate.

Former Governor Chris Christie announced on CNN Wednesday night that his campaign had surpassed the 40,000 donors required by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to make the debate stage as of Tuesday, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott declared earlier in the day that he had received support from 53,000 individual donors across the country.

Both announcements arrived a day after Morning Consultant released the first poll that meets all the RNC's rules to count as a qualifying poll for the GOP debate. The committee confirmed to Politico on Wednesday that Morning Consultant had surveyed "at least 800 likely GOP primary voters," which means that the poll can be used to measure if Republican candidates have garnered enough support to participate on the debate stage.

The RNC requires that candidates earn at least 1 percent of support in three separate national polls on top of meeting the individual donor criteria in order to debate. Eight candidates, including Trump (56 percent), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (17 percent), Vivek Ramaswamy (8 percent), Mike Pence (7 percent), Nikki Haley (3 percent), Scott (3 percent), Christie (3 percent), and Asa Hutchinson (1 percent), met the criteria in the first of such surveys.

But Trump, who has enjoyed a large lead in preliminary polling, has said that he will not participate in the first GOP debate, scheduled for August 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His GOP challengers have begun to turn up the heat on the former president as the debate nears, however, including DeSantis, who said on The Howie Carr Show Wednesday, "Nobody is entitled to this nomination."

"You have got to earn the nomination and doing things like The Family Leader event in Iowa, doing things like these debates, they're important parts of the process," DeSantis said. The Family Leader CEO Bob Vander Plaats announced on Tuesday that the former president said he will not be attending the anti-abortion evangelical event set for Friday. Several other GOP candidates, including DeSantis, will be in attendance.

"Every candidate needs to be put to the test, and I think he needs to step up and do it," DeSantis added while speaking to journalist Howie Carr.

Republican New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu also mocked the former president during an appearance on Fox News Monday, calling Trump a "wimp" for deciding not to participate in the coming debate.

"Former President Trump, the tough guy?" Sununu said. "The guy that says he's gonna fight for America, but he's not willing to stand up, he's gonna wimp out? Wimp out and not get on that debate stage?"

Newsweek reached out to Trump's press team via email Wednesday night for comment.