Republican presidential candidate and real estate business mogul Donald Trump has gone back on earlier threats to not participate in the upcoming CNN debate, undermining what he has touted to be his biggest strength in his campaign: his ability to stand strong on his demands and not cave under pressure.

According to Deadline, Trump demanded a $5 million payment from CNN to appear in the next Republican presidential debate, which will be televised on the cable news network. The candidate threatened to boycott the debate and not appear. CNN's Jeff Zucker rejected his plea and announced that Trump would not be paid to appear on the debate.

Once rejected, Trump could either have stood strong and not appeared in the debate, or gone back on his word. He is the current front-runner for the party's nomination, leading Ben Carson and Ted Cruz. But if he did not appear, then he could have lost all the ground he had made over Carson.

According to The Washington Post, Trump has decided to participate in the debate after all, officially caving on one of his main campaign strengths that his followers have seemed to be so attracted to.

Trump broke the news as a matter of political reasoning.

"When you're leading in the polls, I think it's too big of a risk to not do the debate," Trump told The Washington Post at his golf club in Virginia. "I don't think I have the kind of leverage I'd like to have in a deal, and I don't want to take the chance of hurting my campaign. So, I'll do the debate."

He had originally told a crowd in Macon, Georgia that CNN does not treat him well, which led to his idea of demanding the payment. But he seems to have changed his mind on that.

"Every single person doing the debate would knock the hell out of me and say I'm afraid to be there," Trump remarked at his golf club over the breakfast interview. "The one thing I'm not in life is a chicken."