Donald Trump is not just skipping the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, he is actively counter-programming it.

The former president sat down for a pre-recorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that will be streamed on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, during the first hour of the two-hour Republican debate.

Trump and Carlson make for strange bedfellows, as the former president and the once-popular conservative commentator have had a sometimes complicated relationship. Their interests align, however, in sticking it to Fox News, the conservative cable network that is airing the Republican debate.

Fox abruptly dismissed Mr Carlson from his hugely popular evening politics show in April after documents from a lawsuit against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems showed the host repeatedly disparaging Fox executives and other network employees in text messages and emails.

Mr Carlson was also highly critical of Mr Trump in some of those disclosed communications, saying he “passionately hated” the then-president and that his time in the White House had been a “disaster”.

Mr Trump, for his part, has a long history of clashes with Fox News, starting with what he thought was unfair treatment by the network’s moderators in the first debate of the 2016 primary election season. Since he launched his latest bid for the White House, Mr Trump has repeatedly said Fox News executives have been biased against him, favouring Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign over his.

In this case, the enemy of Mr Trump’s enemy may not necessarily be his friend, but Mr Carlson – and his streaming show – is providing a mutually beneficial way to draw attention away from Mr Trump’s presidential rivals while also damaging Fox News.

The former president is touting the Tucker appearance on his own social media site – he has yet to return to Twitter despite Elon Musk lifting his ban – hinting that the interview won’t necessarily be a cordial affair.

“Sparks will fly,” he posted on Wednesday.

That would serve the purposes of both Mr Carlson and Mr Trump, who may be hoping their own drama outshines whatever takes place on the Fox debate stage Wednesday night.