Former United States President and Republican nominee Donald Trump says he would not participate in another presidential debate against U.S. Vice President and Democrat candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the November 5, 2024, election.

“There will be no third debate!” Trump wrote on social media site Truth Social on Thursday, September 12

This comes after several polls showed Harris won their debate earlier this week.

Trump participated in a debate against President Joe Biden in June before his debate against Harris on Tuesday.

Although Trump touted his performance on Tuesday against Harris, six Republican donors and three Trump advisers who spoke to Reuters earlier this week said they thought Harris had won the debate largely because the Republican nominee was unable to stay on message.

The debate attracted 67.1 million television viewers, according to Nielsen data.

Harris puts Trump on defensive in combative debate

Harris, speaking at a rally shortly after Trump’s post went live, said: “I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate.”

While the former president said in his post that polls showed he won the debate, several surveys showed that respondents thought Harris did better.

Among voters who said they had heard at least something about Tuesday’s debate, 53 per cent said Harris won and 24 per cent said Trump won, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday.

The poll showed that 54 per cent of registered voters believed that the single debate between the Republican nominee and Harris was enough, while 46 per cent had wanted a second debate.

A majority of debate watchers said Harris outperformed the former president, according to a CNN flash poll released shortly after the debate. YouGov showed 54 per cent of those surveyed said Harris won while 31 per cent said Trump was the victor.

The Star