Fresh off a decent showing in the second Republican presidential primary debate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has set his eyes on the other “big guy” former President Donald Trump. During an interview on Fox News, DeSantis threw down the gauntlet and challenged Trump to a mano-a-mano showdown on the debate stage.

The question is: Will Trump accept the challenge?

While speaking with host Bill Hemmer, DeSantis railed against the former president for skipping the first two debates, arguing that he “owes it to the voter to defend his record” and to “defend the decisions he’s made.”

“He didn’t fire Christopher Wray. He didn’t fire Anthony Fauci. He didn’t do anything to clean house. Now, all of a sudden, he’s going to slay the administrative state when he gave Fauci an award his last day in office,” DeSantis said, also noting that the former president ran up “massive amounts of debt.”

DeSantis continued:

So I think on issue after issue, he owes it to the voters to come out and do it. And I'd say the final thing, Bill, he's had a lot to say about me on social media, really since 2022, right before the midterm election. He started attacking me when I was...we all Republicans, were supposed to be united for a Red Wave. No, he tried to attack me and has been doing it a lot. It's one thing to do it behind a keyboard. Step up on stage and do it to my face. I'm ready for it. You used to say I was a great governor. Now all of a sudden you're saying the opposite. Let's have that discussion. And we could do it one-on-one. I was with Sean last night. Let's do that. And let's give the American people the choice that they deserve.

DeSantis challenges Trump to a one-on-one debate.

"Step up on stage and do it to my face."

Will Trump accept the challenge or blow it off? pic.twitter.com/82nbzOdjVD

— Jeff Charles, An Awful Pundit🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) September 28, 2023

DeSantis’ idea for a debate with Trump could have been inspired by his upcoming showdown with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who made an appearance at the Republican primary debate to represent President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.

For his part, Trump’s campaign was quick to reject DeSantis’ proposition. Jason Miller, a senior adviser for the former president’s campaign dismissed the governor as “the loser in 5^th place in New Hampshire” and referred to his campaign as “pathetic.”

DeSantis was not the only one who criticized the former president for ducking the second debate. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has made Trump the primary focal point of his campaign, said both Biden and Trump appear to be trying to avoid having to defend their records.

Former President Trump’s strategy seems to be to leverage his huge lead in the polls to avoid showing up for debates. Instead, the former president gave a speech to United Auto Workers held at the same time as the event. During the first debate, he gave an interview to Tucker Carlson.

While Trump is still far ahead in the primary polls, the numbers are likely to change as more candidates drop out of the race, meaning that the field will narrow even further. At this point, Trump might become more willing to participate in the debates as the gap begins to close. But, for now, it appears his team does not see the need to go toe-to-toe with DeSantis or any of the other candidates.