Donald Trump promises to be "very nice and highly respectful" at the first Republican presidential candidates' debate next week in Cleveland.
Here's what he said on Twitter Thursday:
Trump is expected to be among the 10 contenders making the cut for the prime-time debate, which is sponsored by Fox News and the Republican National Committee.
Since the June 16 start of his campaign, the billionaire developer has slammed fellow candidates South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
He also blasted the Vietnam War record of the 2008 GOP presidential candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Trump is leading in the polls, including Thursday's 20 percent showing in the
Quinnipiac University poll.
The specter of debating Trump has other candidates devising
"a Trump strategy."
Doug Heye, a longtime Republican strategist who has attacked Trump’s rise, told
Time.com that the other candidates must press for specifics.
"If you allow him an open-ended question to where he can go back to name-calling and cell-phone talking and insults, then you can’t win," he said. "But if you drill down on specifics, you can.
"It’s drilling down and getting into specifics of policy," Heye added. "You can show that not only the emperor has no clothes — the candidate has no answers."
Trump, for his part, said this week that he would not use a debate coach. He played golf on Thursday in Scotland.
"I am what I am," he told CNN's
Don Lemon on Tuesday. "I have to be myself. If it is not good enough, that's OK.
"I'll go on to other things," Trump added. "I'll ride into the sunset and do some more buildings and create more jobs and that's OK."
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