Former President Donald Trump reportedly dined with Fox News executives this week to discuss the rapidly approaching first Republican Party primary debate after he previously dismissed the idea as “stupid” and indicated that he did not want to face “hostile” opponents and questions on the debate stage.

Trump dined with Fox News President Jay Wallace and CEO Suzanne Scott at his club in Bedminster after learning that he was going to be criminally charged in what is now the third case in which he’s been indicted.

The executives “made a soft appeal” in lobbying the 77-year-old former president to participate in the debates, according to a report from The New York Times. The report noted that several people close to Trump have warned that if he does not show up, it could backfire by allowing another candidate to catch fire.

Trump remains the frontrunner for now, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues to be in clear second place. No other candidates poll anywhere near double digits, according to The New York Times/Siena poll, which is rated by FiveThirtyEight as the top poll in the nation. The poll shows a dramatic drop off after DeSantis with the next closest candidates barely registering with voters as former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley all sit at 3%. The remaining candidates all sit at 2% or less.

While Trump appears to be dominant at the moment with just over half of the vote in The New York Times/Siena poll, the poll showed that nearly half of the respondents who chose Trump in the poll — 46% — say that they are “considering other candidates.”

The dinner between Trump and Fox News executives was described as “cordial” and the president reportedly told them that he has not yet made a decision on whether he’ll debate.

Trump said in an interview late last week with Breitbart News that the debates were what won him the 2016 GOP nomination and the 2016 general election.

The former president said that he did not want to face “hostile questions” from a “hostile network” and from “hostile” candidates on the debate stage.

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The candidates that he said he did not feel like going up against were polling at “one, two, three, four, five” points, which, according to The New York Times poll, are all the candidates except for DeSantis.

Trump participating in the debates could “be a stupid thing to do,” but he says he enjoys doing them and thinks “they’re a good thing.”

Special counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 case against former President Donald Trump fails to pass the “banana republic test,” according to Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz.

During a discussion with Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck, Dershowitz argued that prosecutors will not be able to prove Trump acted with a “corrupt motive” as he allegedly sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election over claims that it was stolen.

Still, the inquiry is escalating as Trump is campaigning as the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 race for the White House, setting up a possible general election rematch with President Joe Biden, Dershowitz noted.

“This doesn’t satisfy the banana republic test. In banana republics, presidents prosecute their political opponents and the stronger their political opponents are in the polls, the more likely they are to be prosecuted,” Dershowitz said.

Alan Dershowitz tells @glennbeck: "This doesn't satisfy the Banana Republic test. In Banana Republics, presidents prosecute their political opponents and the stronger their political opponents are in the polls, the more likely they are to be prosecuted." pic.twitter.com/uTUnom7MPG

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 2, 2023

Dershowitz pointed to polling showing Trump and Biden virtually tied in a head-to-head matchup. He said any indictment against the former president “better be the strongest indictment in American history” with “smoking gun” evidence.

The four-count indictment brought on Tuesday is “flawed” and “filled with speculation,” Dershowitz said, adding that it does not meet the “Nixon standard” established when former President Richard Nixon’s Republican allies turned against him during the Watergate scandal.

Trump has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. He is expected to be arraigned in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Among Smith’s defenders is former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who told MSNBC that the special counsel was “picked as an independent, career prosecutor.” He said attacks on “the Biden Justice Department” for “going after” Trump are “poppycock.”

On the other side of the argument is George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who wrote an op-ed published by USA Today saying Smith aims to “criminalize false political claims” in a way that will “bulldoze through the First Amendment and a line of Supreme Court cases.”

Trump faces two other indictments in a documents-related case brought by Smith and a hush-money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He may also be charged in a 2020 election inquiry in Georgia. Trump has broadly denied any wrongdoing and claims he is the target of a political “witch hunt.”

Dershowitz, who defended Trump in his first impeachment trial, previously claimed to Fox Business that Smith’s documents-related case against the former president failed to pass the Nixon test and “may be the most dangerous indictment in political history.”