Donald Trump avoided tonight’s Republican presidential debate, but still got his jibes in any way.
The former US President hurled insults online at them all, plus President Joe Biden, for good measure.
But the candidates who were in the debate weren't behaving much better as they all fought for centre stage.
With the scene set, and Republicans ready, it was hard to avoid the elephant in the room - Trump, who wasn't even in there.
But he didn't miss out on the limelight.
"It's debate night, but we're not in Milwaukee," said former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, standing next to Trump in a video released five minutes before the debate started.
Trump ranted, raved, and wrote off the candidates he refused to face off with in the interview.
"He's weak and pathetic, and I never understood the guy - I never knew him!" he said.
"He's like a savage maniac, he's like a lunatic."
The interview with Carlson had plenty of highlights - some weird, some wacky and many predictable.
Trump started by suggesting Jeffery Epstein's suicide may have been something more sinister.
"You know everybody was sleeping, and you know, a case could be made, look," Trump added.
He was asked whether or not his opponents would try and murder him.
"Are you worried they're going to try and kill you? Why wouldn't they try and kill you, honestly?" asked Carlson.
"They're savage animals. They are people that are sick, really sick," Trump concluded.
And then he and Carlson tore into current US President Joe Biden about his age, his mental state, and his "beach body", or lack of.
"They love pictures of him on the beach. I think he looks terrible on the beach! He looks terrible on the beach."
"Skinny legs?" Carlson asked.
"Well, he can't walk through the sand. You know, sand is not that easy to walk through, but when he walks through it he can't walk through the sand," said Trump.
Those vying for Trump's former job at the debate were trading insults too, except they were hard to hear over each other.
"I know a lot better than you do, you've never done it like you've never done anything," said Chris Christie.
"You have no foreign policy experience and it shows," Nikki Haley snapped back.
One of the more interesting moments of the debate involved foreign policy.
Some candidates, including Ron DeSantis, refused to commit billions more dollars to Ukraine.
"I'm not going to send troops to Ukraine, but I am going to send them to our southern border."
And while campaigning continues tomorrow for the Republican hopefuls, Trump has other engagements.
He'll head to a county jail in Atlanta, Georgia to be booked - in the latest set of criminal charges he faces.
And, like his friend and former New York mayor Rudy Guiliani today, Trump has a mugshot moment waiting.
