West Palm Beach, Florida - Donald Trump alluded to skipping the upcoming GOP debate as he took aim at his competitors and slammed some of his former cabinet members in a new interview with Fox News.

Speaking with Maria Bartiromo on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures, the former president suggested that he will be opting out of the first Republican presidential debate.

"It's quite an easy question normally. Ronald Reagan didn't do it, and a lot of other people didn't do it," he said. "When you have a big lead, you don't do it."

He then took another shot at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, calling him "DeSanctimonious," while emphasizing his lead in the polls.

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"Why would you let someone that's at zero, or one or two or three, be popping you with questions?" Trump said.

He dismissed Bartiromo's concerns that DeSantis could score a boost with a strong appearance at the debate and said he's been "impressed" by some of the candidates as he teased that some could make good members of his cabinet if elected - particularly praising Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Elsewhere in the interview, Trump threw some former members of his administration under the bus as he claimed he "didn't know the people" when he chose the cabinet.

Trump denied Bartiromo's claim that he didn't follow through on "draining the swamp" as he named Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions among the members he regrets putting in his cabinet. He also called Mark Esper, who was the 27th US secretary of defense, "incompetent."

The former president said that while he wasn't knowledgeable about the politicians in Washington DC before his presidency, he now knows "the people better than anybody's ever known the people."

The first Republican presidential primary debate will be held on August 23.