Donald ducks debate as rivals rough up Ramaswamy

It is the widely-recognized party symbol uniting Republicans, but the only elephant in the room at the first US presidential debate was the one that didn't show up.

"Trump's on the stage every day. He gives two-hour speeches," Donald Trump's eldest son Don Jr told AFP, explaining his father's decision to skip the event.

"He spends more time with the press -- even the ones that hated him, even when he was president -- than anyone."

The younger Trump was upbeat about his father's 2024 election prospects, but angry at being blocked from the press interview area by Fox News, organizers of the Republican candidates' debate in Milwaukee.

"It's also why Trump was 100 percent right to not go to this debate. It's beneath him and when you know that you're walking into a set-up because of exactly these kinds of circumstances," he seethed.

The former president piled insult on injury with an interview aired just as the two-hour spectacle was getting underway.

In Trump's absence, fast-talking newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy benefited from being near center stage, and got many of the loudest cheers with his culture war talking points.

But he might as well have had a "kick me" sign on his back as he described himself as "the only person on stage who is not bought and paid for."

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley accused him of "wanting to hand Ukraine to Russia" while former New Jersey governor Chris Christie complained he'd "had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like Chat GPT."

While Trump may have been missing in action, his supporters and aides made their presence felt in baking Milwaukee, poking fun at 44-year-old DeSantis, who positions himself as Trump's main challenger.

A group of Trump fans marched around the venue sporting DeSantis face masks and chanting pro-Trump slogans.

- Bingo and dessert -

"I think Ron DeSantis's campaign is over. I think we've probably been seeing that for a while," Trump Jr. told AFP after the fun was over.

"Once people got to see him -- not the sort of manufactured, paid influencer, two-second clip version of him -- things changed."

The Trump campaign distributed DeSantis bingo cards featuring squares bearing such captions as "dismisses poll," "red ears," "nervous laugh" and "flip flops on social security again."

On the eve of the debate, aides handed out dessert at a local restaurant, a nod to bizarre accusations early in the campaign that DeSantis ate a chocolate dish with three of his fingers instead of a spoon.

DeSantis tried to fight back on stage but, without Trump, found he was shadowboxing rather than landing any telling hits.

Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, one of Trump’s most outspoken allies, characterized the debate field as "has-beens and some upstarts, who maybe aren't ready yet" but called Ramaswamy "funny and interesting."

"President Trump wasn't even in the debate and he had more volunteers here than any of the other campaigns," he added.

"So he dominated the policy discussion, he's dominating the politics. This race is functionally over."

Doug Burgum, North Dakota's governor, was hoping the debate would be a slam dunk -- but ended up almost not making the stage after crocking his heel shooting hoops.

NBC reporter Sahil Kapur quipped that it was "basketball's most famous Achilles tear" since star player Kevin Durant's much-discussed 2019 on-court injury.