Less than 48 hours after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection in a landslide in an otherwise worse-than-expected election for Republicans, his former political benefactor, Donald Trump, released an official statement Thursday bashing him as ungrateful, “average,” and accusing him of “playing games” with his potential presidential 2024 run.
If the tension between the two men hadn’t sufficiently become public before now, it will be impossible for both DeSantis’ and Trump’s advisers to deny now. It also shows in stark terms how a frustrated Trump views DeSantis as a rival for the presidential nomination, even as DeSantis has largely avoided criticizing Trump publicly.
The angry and wide-ranging statement relitigates 2018, when DeSantis first won the governor’s race largely thanks to Trump’s endorsement, complains about conservative media being “all in” for DeSantis and even resurrects the “Low Energy Jeb Bush” mocking nickname for one of Florida’s former governors who also ran against him for president.
“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,” reads part of the 475-word emailed statement. “When I Endorsed him, it was as though, to use a bad term, a nuclear weapon went off.”
DeSantis’ reelection campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Trump also claims that DeSantis would have lost to the Democratic nominee for governor in 2018, Andrew Gillum — whom he disparages by calling a “Crack Head” — had it not been for his intervention as president. He said: “when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County ... I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended.”
There is no evidence to suggest this claim of attempted voter fraud is true.
“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.’” Trump’s statement continues. “Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”
Times staff writer Kirby Wilson contributed to this report.
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