US Midterms: Trump Slams Florida’s Governor DeSantis

Former President Donald Trump is back to disparaging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. It comes after a brief hiatus, apparently prompted by complaints from top Republicans that he went too far in criticising the governor just days before the midterm elections.

Eko Hot Blog reports that on the heels of DeSantis’ resounding re-election victory, which has intensified speculation that he will seek the GOP presidential nod in 2024, Trump issued a blistering statement on Thursday.

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“Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games!” Trump wrote, repeating a nickname he coined for the governor.

“The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”

The former president also repeated his claim that his endorsement of DeSantis in the 2018 GOP primary for Florida governor, when the former congressman was widely considered a longshot, paved the way for DeSantis’ meteoric rise in the Republican Party.

“Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017,” Trump said, likening his endorsement at the time to “a nuclear weapon” in the gubernatorial primary. “I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart.” 

Trump’s comments come days after he first tested his “DeSanctimonious” nickname at a pre-midterm rally in Pennsylvania, drawing the ire of Republicans who wanted to avoid an early 2024 showdown between the two men, particularly as Republicans in tight midterm races were delivering their closing pitches to voters.

The blowback caused the former president to tamp down his criticism of DeSantis at subsequent rallies in Miami and Ohio. Though DeSantis was notably absent from Trump’s Florida rally with Sen. Marco Rubio last Sunday, Trump encouraged the crowd at one point to reelect their Republican governor.

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DeSantis won his reelection contest against Democrat Charlie Crist by a 19-point margin Tuesday. He did not seek Trump’s endorsement and has consistently declined to weigh in on speculation about his presidential ambitions.

Source: CNN

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