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U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, January 26, 2016. Reuters/Scott Morgan

US presidential candidate Donald Trump has pulled out of a Republican debate set to air on FOX News on Thursday night, accusing the channel of “playing games” with him.

During a press conference in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Tuesday local time, Trump announced that he would “most likely” not be attending the debate after FOX News mocked him in a “wise-guy” press release.

The statement cited both the Ayatollah, Iran’s leader, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that they “both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president.”

It also joked that Trump had a “secret plan” to “replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers.”

The press release, posted by a FOX News spokesperson, was written in response to Trump’s threats not to attend the debate made earlier in the week.

It also follows an interview Trump gave with CNN on Monday, during which he accused FOX’s debate moderator Megyn Kelly of "bias" and treating him “unfairly” in the past.

Trump, however, made no mention of a previous plan to boycott the event during Tuesday’s conference.

“I was all set to do the debate, I came here to do the debate,” he said.

“But when they sent out the wise-guy press release done by some PR person, I said: ‘Bye bye.’”

Trump argued that FOX was “toying” with him, and that since he had won “every single debate” in the presidential race so far, he believed it unnecessary to attend Thursday’s event simply to “make FOX rich.”

“With me, they’re dealing with somebody that’s a little bit different,” he said.

“They can’t toy with me like they toy with everybody else. So let them have their debate, and let’s see how they do with the ratings.”

Trump also suggested that his boycott of the debate was due to the fact that it would be co-hosted by Kelly, calling her a “lightweight” reporter.

“I’m not a fan of Megyn Kelly, I think she’s a third-rate reporter,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “I think [FOX] could do a lot better than Megyn Kelly.”

Trump has been an outspoken critic of Kelly’s since the first Republican debate in August 2015, after she questioned his legitimacy as a candidate following the derogatory statements he had made against several women.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Trump labelled Kelly’s reference to his use of the terms ‘dogs’, ‘fat pigs’, ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals’ in reference to women as “inappropriate” for a debate setting.

“Megyn Kelly shouldn’t be in the debate. [Kelly] didn’t ask me a question, she made a statement last time, and I thought it was inappropriate, but everybody said I won the debate,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes has defended Kelly in a statement, saying that Trump’s decision not to attend the debate will not affect the scheduled lineup of hosts.

"Megyn Kelly is an excellent journalist and the entire network stands behind her — she will absolutely be on the debate stage on Thursday night," he said.

"Trump is still welcome at Thursday night's debate and will be treated fairly, just as he has been during his 132 appearances on FOX News & FOX Business, but he can't dictate the moderators or the questions," the statement continued.

Trump later tweeted a statement officially withdrawing from Thursday’s debate, and will instead be hosting a simultaneous event for the Veterans and Wounded Warriors group.

The debate on Thursday comes just three days before the first votes of the 2016 presidential election will be cast in the Iowa Caucus.

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