I say no? I think his campaign and the Republican Party will make sure there isn’t one. Trump is too much out of control, there’s too much danger he will look like a complete buffoon on the same stage with Hilary. There’s too much danger he will say something that is just too horrible to explain or take back.
I want to believe you – but I have to admit that he did fine in the GOP debates; and that, if enough folks set expectations as low as you just did, he can ‘win’ by managing to just not screw up; and that, since I hope and expect him to be behind in the polls before the debates, he’d be the one who’ll have nothing to lose and Hillary would be the one who could jeopardize everything with a big enough slip-up.
In which case, why wouldn’t he debate?
If they do a town-hall style, Trump will be toast. He can’t project empathy; all he can do is stoke people’s rage. Clinton, by contrast, seems stiff behind the podium but can be very charming and empathetic one-on-one. He will fight tooth and nail to avoid having to debate in that setting. In a more typical format, he probably feels he will do well and won’t put up too much fuss (apart from his customary dominance displays wherein he bitches about the time/place/staging/etc. in order to extract some minor concession to prove his alpha status).
The Republicans and the Trump campaign itself would be fools to allow Trump to debate Clinton…she would wipe the floor with him. But, that said, Trump himself is likely to insist there is one or more, since I’m pretty sure HE thinks he will wipe the floor with her, and, frankly since winning or losing is entirely based on the person watching, he will ‘win’ with at least 40% of the people, regardless of how badly he does or how stupid are the things he spouts. So, there will be at least one IMHO, FWIW. It will probably be cringe worthy, and I can’t wait to see John Oliver has to say about it on his show. 
I said it somewhere else, but debating Hillary can only hurt Trump. He has nothing to gain and much to lose. Even if she is wooden and schoolmarm-like–she doesn’t have to be Muhammed Ali (“floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee”) to take him down. She just has to let him bluster and blather on and he will screw himself into the ground. I believe that his survival instinct will prevent him from debating. His staff will talk him out of it by saying, “you don’t NEED to debate her-- you’re already ahead.” Plus, his public will see this not as him “backing down,” but as him “standing up to her.” He can only come out the loser in a debate.
But, again, what if he’s behind?
Perhaps, but I think that skipping even one debate would do far more damage to his campaign than showing up and making a fool of himself. I can almost see the Clinton campaign commercials now if Trump does skip one: “Donald Trump is too afraid to face Hillary Clinton. How do you think he would do facing other world leaders if he was elected President?”
Worse, imagine if, somehow, it got out that it was the Republican party’s idea. How many House seats would that cost when the undecideds vote Democrat?
That means he can’t win (the debate argument) either way. And I’ll be glad to see it.
By the way, using the NFL as an excuse is just plain being scared. So no matter what happens on election day, he’s lost.
According to the Votemaster, he has already set himself up to dodge the debates on the grounds that they conflict with NFL games. In fact, he has accused Hillary of setting that scenario up deliberately, even though it was done ages by a non-partisan committee that simply could not dodge all NFL dates, MLB playoffs and the like.
This will be part of his complaint, should he lose, that she stole the election just like she stole the primaries.
I’m not sure he can admit he’s behind even if he is behind.
I cannot picture him having the following (excuse the expression) thought process: “The polls show I’m behind Hillary, so I’d better make sure I do a great job when I debate Hillary so I can get on top again.”
I imagine something more like this: “I don’t care what the numbers say-- the polls are rigged by Hillary anyway-- just more of her LIES. Who does she think she is, just snapping her fingers and expecting me to show up on her time on her turf. I don’t need her. I’m doing GREAT!”
I may be giving him too much credit, but I kind of figured he’s simply lying about stuff being rigged: that he’s at least minimally competent to take polls seriously, even if he’s psychotically optimistic about how easy it’ll be to reverse the trend by crushing her in debates, like he did all the Senators and Governors who got in his way before.
If you disagree with that last part, and instead figure he’s realistic enough to know he’ll probably lose, then I figure he’d still roll the dice on the chance of her saying something really stupid during the debate – because the alternative is just staying behind in the polls. But for him to actually believe the polls are rigged?
Amazingly, I don’t think he’s that stupid. No, I can’t picture him saying the bit about being behind and needing to get back on top; but I can picture him thinking it.
But there is this:
I don’t think showing his ass in public has ever been seen as a defeat by Trump and his supporters. They can “debate” as many times as they want and still both claim victory every time because they have different objectives.
For what it’s worth, consider this, where he freely grants that she got a big bounce in the polls following the DNC convention – and, sure, he’s got excuses for why, he argues that having the second convention is a big advantage, he goes on to gripe that CNN is unfair to him, he thinks Stein isn’t getting media coverage like Johnson gets because she’s more likely to compete for Clinton voters, he notes that Kaine has won elections in swing-state Virginia but adds that those elections were pretty close; but the point is, he doesn’t seem to dispute the polls as inaccurate so much as feel voters are being misled.
Also, he seems to ramble a lot and get easily distracted.
What Hari said. Trump is already laying the groundwork for refusing to participate in the debates because they are - UNFAIR!!! AND IT’S ALL EVIL HILLARY’S FAULT!!! I’M BEING ROBBED!!! So sad.
He won’t turn down the opportunity to get millions of people to watch him on live TV.
Besides, you what kind of people back out of debates? Losers. Trump isn’t a loser. He’s one of the great all-time debaters. He’s going to go out there and hit Crooked Hillary so hard she won’t know what is going on, and he’s going to win bigly.
I don’t think he’ll do any of them. He’s already said the dates have to be changed, I can’t see him backing down on that, he’d look weak. If the Debate commission agrees to that he’ll make another demand about the moderator or the format etc. And of course he’ll make all his demands in public instead of actually negotiating with the debate commission.
Here’s a source claiming that Trump’s campaign is not actually negotiating with the debate commission yet, which is unusual.
I think he’ll get backed into doing one and he’ll get creamed. He’s screwed either way really. If he won’t debate her, then he’s a weak-hearted coward who can’t handle debating his political opponent, so how will he manage actual global political negotiations. If he does debate her, he’ll blather mindlessly, and she’ll look presidential.
All she has to do is sit back and watch his squirm for the next 60 days or so about how the debate schedule isn’t fair, and he doesn’t like the stage, and the moderator is mean. He’ll look like a whining baby. Chip, chip, chip at his numbers. 
The debates are going to be absurd. Clinton’s strength is with intellectual discussion. Trump is all about riling up crowds with emotionally charged statements without much truth to them. She will blow the Donald out of the water, but he will be too busy blustering about his YUGE wall to notice.
This is key.
Trump turning down free TV face time is just beyond my capacity to believe. He is going to show up for not one, and not two, but all three scheduled debates, of his best suits and ties, ready to rock. “You’ll be live on national TV” to Trump is like pure coke to a drug addict. He could no more turn it down than he could flap his arms and fly, though I’m sure if you asked him he’d say he could do that.
Of COURSE he’ll bitch and moan about the timing and how unfair! and sad! it is. That 's a Trump strategy; say it’s all unfair beforehand and you literally can’t lose, at least in your own head. If the debates go well - which is not at all unlikely, because the expectations for him will be low and it’ll be easy for his to exceed them - then he looks like a hero. If they don’t, he’s already constructed his excuse. There’s no way in hell The Donald is turning down ninety straight minutes of free television.