The rivalry between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis has spilt open after the Republican ex-president came swinging out against his one-time acolyte on Thursday night.
Mr. Trump belittled the Florida governor as an “average” politician whose achievement was owed to his patronage.
Mr. DeSantis, 44, stormed to re-appointment in Tuesday’s midterms, making him the Republicans’ biggest rising star and a clear challenger to Mr. Trump.
The ex-president warned him against it.
In an extensive statement, Mr. Trump dismissed Mr. DeSantis as a political lightweight who had come to him “in desperate shape” when running for his first term in office in 2017.
“Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse [sic] him, he could win,” Mr. Trump said. “I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart.”
He proceeded to complain that Mr. DeSantis – to whom he had given the unflattering nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious” – was “playing games” by refusing to preclude a presidential bid in 2024, warning that he would be vanquished if would it be a good idea for him he does as such…
M.r Trump is widely expected to announce his plan to run again – and with the expectation of seizing the Republican nomination unopposed.
Notwithstanding, appointing midterms in which Republicans have failed to garner the large majority in the Place of Representatives that was normal – and are yet unable to say whether they have seized a majority in the Senate – has left many in the party laying the blame at Mr. Trump’s feet.
Citizens overall dismissed candidates who backed Mr. Trump’s unsupported claims of election fraud in 2020, and many of his high-profile picks for office battled or lost outright.
“Republicans have followed Donald Trump off the side of a cliff,” one former Trump adviser, David Urban, told the New York Times.
“I think he needs to put it [his campaign announcement] on pause,” Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s former press secretary, told Fox News.
M..r DeSantis’ 20-point win over his Democratic rival Charlie Crist, has, conversely, established his status as a coming man.
In particular, his margin of victory in Miami-Dade province – one of Florida’s largest, and traditionally a Democratic stronghold – was the largest won by a Republican in four decades.
In 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won by 29 percentage points. On Tuesday, Mr. DeSantis won 55% of the vote there.
According to an October Ipsos survey, 72% of registered Republicans said M..r DeSantis ought to have a great deal or great amount of influence on the eventual fate of the party, compared to 64% who said the same of Mr. Trump, 76.
The governor did not immediately respond to Mr. Trump’s jibes on Thursday.
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