The Hill News

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) dubbed real estate mogul Donald Trump the ego-in-chief.

Kirk was responding to a question about what he thought of Trump moderating an upcoming Republican presidential debate hosted by Newsmax magazine in Iowa.

"He's definitely the ego-in-chief," Kirk said Tuesday on Illinois radio station 1400 WDWS.

The debate moderated by Trump will take place on December 27th in Iowa.

Thus far, the Republican presidential field seems to be split on whether they plan to attend the debate. Earlier on Tuesday Michele Bachmann said she had not decided whether she planned to attend the debate or not. On Monday, Rick Santorum announced ! he would attend the debate.

Meanwhile, both Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman have decided not to participate in the debate.

Huntsman's decision not to attend the debate appears to be a continuation of an ongoing feud between Huntsman and Trump. Trump has cast down any possibility that Huntsman would be the nominee and said Huntsman requested a one on one sit down with him, which, Trump said, he declined. Huntsman's campaign has denied that there was ever any request to sit down with Trump to win his support.