OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The lines have been drawn and the contest between former President Donald Trump and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is starting to get nasty.
The former president was confronted this week about his thoughts on DeSantis as a candidate, debater and person and he went for the jugular.
Reporter Kyle Mazza asked him about the Florida governor during the LIV Golf Washington DC 2023 Pro-Am round at Trump National Golf Club Washington DC in Sterling, VA.
“If you were on a debate stage with Ron DeSantis, what would you say to him? What would be your interaction with him?” the reporter said.
“I watched him with Charlie Crist and he got very badly beaten by Charlie Crist. Adam Putnam beat him. They say he’s not a very good debater, but maybe he is. We’ll find out. Maybe we’ll find out. Because unless he gets close, why would anybody debate?” the former president said.
Trump has hinted before that he may not take part in the Republican primary debates as he was not consulted before the dates, locations and moderators were chosen.
“Are you angry, Mr. President, that Ron DeSantis entered the race?” the reporter said.
“No, I think he’s a very disloyal person — because he was dead,” the former president said. “He was looking for jobs and I endorsed him and he went up many points. He was thirty points down at least, maybe more than that. He was dead. So I think he’s very disloyal, but I don’t care. Look, a poll just came out in Iowa… I’m leading by 30 or 40 points. I don’t mind that at all. I think he’s very disloyal but he has no personality. If you’ve got no personality in politics, it’s a very hard business.”
A state Republican who had previously supported Ron DeSantis has announced that she is switching her endorsement to former President Donald Trump after the Florida governor’s glitchy campaign launch on Twitter Spaces Wednesday.
After being less than impressed with Ron DeSantis’s official announcement last night, I am hereby switching my endorsement to President Donald J. Trump,” New Hampshire State Representative Sandra Panek said on Thursday, according to the Tampa Free Press.
“We can’t expect someone to run the country if they can’t properly run their own campaign launch. The stakes are simply too great in 2024 to take a chance on someone as unreliable as DeSantis — we need a proven winner like President Trump to take back the White House and Make America Great Again!” she added.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire State Representative Juliet Harvey-Bolia changed her “dual endorsement” of Trump-DeSantis to just Trump.
“I’m proud to announce my full endorsement for President Trump, and only Trump. He’ll keep us out of war and prosperous as he has in the past. Ron DeSantis will make a great candidate in 2028. I expect Republicans will unite behind President Trump.”
Polls for months have shown Trump with a clear lead in the GOP primary race over all of his rivals, but DeSantis has consistently been the closest.
And on Thursday, the governor’s political strategists “detailed the path forward for the Florida governor in the Republican presidential primary — and brushed aside bad headlines surrounding his rocky campaign launch the night before,” Politico reported, adding:
Appearing before a private gathering of around 150 donors at the Four Seasons Hotel, three top DeSantis lieutenants — Ryan Tyson, Sam Cooper and Jason Johnson — argued that the governor remained poised throughout a malfunction-plagued appearance on Twitter Spaces, where he unveiled his candidacy in a conversation with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
They said DeSantis had a clear path to defeat former President Donald Trump, and added their belief that Florida would emerge as a key state that could help to determine the outcome of the nomination contest, according to two people present for the presentation.
