Former President Donald Trump has removed all ambiguity about his feelings about Ron DeSantis.
In a searing statement from Trump's Save America PAC, Trump unleashed on DeSantis as just an "average Republican Governor" propped up by Fox News and related properties.
"NewsCorp, which is Fox, the Wall Street Journal, and the no longer great New York Post (bring back Col!), is all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious, an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations, who didn't have to close up his State, but did, unlike other Republican Governors, whose overall numbers for a Republican, were just average — middle of the pack — including COVID, and who has the advantage of SUNSHINE, where people from badly run States up North would go no matter who the Governor was, just like I did!"
Trump is trying to undercut the DeSantis mythos on COVID-19 mitigation strategies. As those who were here in 2020 remember, DeSantis closed schools, bars, and other non-essential businesses for a period of time before making the move to open back up ahead of many other states.
From that bit of business, Trump turned to the 2018 race for Governor, again telling the story of how DeSantis cajoled him into an endorsement.
"Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017 — he was politically dead, losing in a landslide to a very good Agriculture Commissioner, Adam Putnam, who was loaded up with cash and great poll numbers. Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win. I didn't know Adam so I said, 'Let's give it a shot, Ron.' When I Endorsed him, it was as though, to use a bad term, a nuclear weapon went off," Trump related.
"Years later, they were the exact words that Adam Putnam used in describing Ron's Endorsement. He said, 'I went from having it made, with no competition, to immediately getting absolutely clobbered after your Endorsement.' I then got Ron by the 'Star' of the Democrat Party, Andrew Gillum (who was later revealed to be a 'Crack Head'), by having two massive Rallies with tens of thousands of people at each one. I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart," the former President continues.
Indeed, Trump consultant Susie Wiles was key in getting DeSantis through the formidable challenge posed by Gillum. For her trouble, DeSantis' political operation jettisoned her soon after he took office.
Trump claimed he stopped the election from being "stolen" in Broward County from there: "I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen."
"And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games! 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," Trump asserted.
DeSantis has not engaged an increasingly vexed and vocal Trump, despite having a rapid response operation at the ready. Thursday's statement was the latest shot in a series of Trumpian blasts of the Governor.
Trump took to Truth Social to diminish DeSantis' accomplishment Wednesday.
"Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn't it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?"
Trump derided DeSantis on NewsNation and Fox News in reports that ran Election Day. He recycled his claim that he carried DeSantis to the Governor's Mansion in 2018 and threatened to spill secrets about the Governor should DeSantis run in 2024.
"He was not going to be able to even be a factor in the race. And as soon as I endorsed him, within moments, the race was over," Trump said. "I got him the nomination. He didn't get it. I got it, because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it."
"Then he ran, and he wasn't supposed to be able to win," Trump said, describing the Governor's race against Democrat Andrew Gillum. "I did two rallies, we had 52,000 people each one and he won. I thought that he could have been more gracious. But that's up to him."
"I would tell you things about him that won't be very flattering — I know more about him than anybody — other than, perhaps, his wife," Trump added, per Fox News.
