During an interview with New Hampshire’s NH1 News, Donald Trump was asked if he’ll attend next Saturday’s Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire. Trump responded, “I think I will be there. I look forward to it. I look forward to the debates, as you know.” Right, it was obvious how much he loves the debates when Trump chose to cut and run from the Iowa debate to avoid tough questions from Megyn Kelly and declined Ted Cruz’ challenge to a debate between just the two of them.

Trump also admitted that he tried to extort a $5 million donation from Fox as a “quid pro quo” in return for Trump’s promise to appear in Thursday night’s Republican debate:

Yeah, I want money to go to charity and Fox News and frankly others like CNN, they’re making a fortune on the debates.

Trump’s decision to participate in the New Hampshire debate comes after he lost his bet that he could run against Fox News. The Donald’s cut and run stunt and effort to extort $5 million from Fox News didn’t hurt the network at all. Thursday’s Trumpless debate got higher ratings than the last debate in which Trump participated.

In fact, Fox reports that Thursday’s debate was the second-highest rated telecast in the network’s history. The debate topped all television shows — including broadcast programs — on Thursday night in total viewers. Worse for Trump the debate beat CNN and MSNBC combined in total viewers. Those networks aired segments of Trump’s alternative event which he hoped would provide some face-saving cover to his cowardly cut and run stunt.