Two Republican presidential candidates -- Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum - today said they would attend the event for US veterans being organised by their GOP front-runner Donald Trump after he decided to boycott a nationally televised debate.
Running an unconventional election campaign, Trump has said that he would not attend the Republican presidential debate organised by Fox News and Google alleging that the popular American news channel is playing games with him.
The decision by Trump has surprised many as in American electoral political system, debate is considered an integral part of the campaign.
It is one of the rarest of the rare occasion that a candidate has not attended a presidential debate.
In a series of tweets this morning, Trump lashed out at the Fox News and claimed that his boycott of the debate would affect the ratings and revenue of Fox News.
Instead, he announced a rival event to benefit Veteran Organisations in Des Moines, just three miles away from the venue of the presidential debate, exactly at the same time as the debate begins, injecting a sense of chaos into the contest.
In turn, Fox News shot back accusing Trump of "terrorising" the network after he pulled out of the last televised debate four days before voting begins in presidential primary polls.
The network has said it will go ahead with the debate as scheduled.
On Tweeter, Trump today announced that two other presidential candidates would be attending his parallel event.
Later both Huckabee and Santorum confirmed it. Both would join the Trump event after attending the undercard debate.
"It's to honour the troops, it's not an endorsement of Donald Trump's candidacy. I'm still running for president, we have got the caucuses Monday night, but I'm delighted to join with Trump in an effort to salute the veterans," Huckabee told CNN in an interview.
A spokesman of Santorum confirmed that he would be attending Trump's event.
"I have always believed that the best thing to do is show up at every opportunity you can to meet with people, talk to them and try to paint the vision. This isn't just about an election of winning the election. It's about changing the course of America. It's about creating a vision and creating some momentum so we can get some great things done for this country," Santorum told the Fox News.
Meanwhile, the entire US media was abuzz with Trump's latest political decision not to attend the GOP presidential debate organised by Fox News.
"The Trump-less debate will still be all about Donald Trump," The Washington Post said.
