Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign team is bizarrely refusing to confirm the correct pronunciation of the presidential contender's last name.
The conservative candidate has gone back and forth on the pronunciation of his name for years, switching between "Dee-Santis" and "Deh-Santis," Axios reports.
In his first week as a candidate, the Florida governor used "Dee-Santis" in his presidential campaign announcement video and a radio interview he did in South Carolina urging listeners to visit his website. But last week, he pronounced his name "Deh-Santis" during press appearances with Fox News, Glenn Beck, Erick Erickson, and Mark Levin. His wife, campaign and the independent super PAC backing him also all use the latter pronunciation.
When questioned about the proper way to pronounce DeSantis, the governor's campaign did not answer, and the super PAC refused to say.
"It is odd, I have to say, that the DeSantis campaign won't confirm one way or another, how to say his name," MSNBC host Willie Geist said during Thursday's edition of "Morning Joe."
"We're happy to say it however it's meant to be said, but we've heard so many different versions of it, and it goes back and forth from one event to another," he continued, emphasizing that he is "genuinely not quite sure how to say the governor's name."
DEE-Santis or Duh-Santis?
— The Recount (@therecount) June 1, 2023
"It is odd, I have to say, that the DeSantis campaign won't confirm one way or another, how to say his name." — @WillieGeist pic.twitter.com/IhlrqSaXWb
Former President Donald Trump seized on the report about his Republican foe on Wednesday.
"Have you heard that 'Rob' DeSanctimonious wants to change his name, again. He is demanding that people call him DeeeSantis, rather than DaSantis," he wrote on Truth Social. "Actually, I like 'Da' better, a nicer flow, so I am happy he is changing it. He gets very upset when people, including reporters, don't pronounce it correctly. Therefore, he shouldn't mind, DeSanctimonious?"
Trump later shared a statement from Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., that admonished DeSantis for his "ingratitude" toward Trump after receiving the former president's endorsement during his 2018 campaign for governor.
He followed that jab with a separate post linking to an article from conservative publication American Greatness about DeSantis called "Republican Voters Don't Want a Trump Knockoff."
Trump's spokesperson Steven Cheung also took aim at DeSantis.
"If you can't get your name right, how can you lead a country?" he told Axios.
According to the outlet, DeSantis seemed to use "Dee-Santis" more often earlier in his career, eventually adopting — though inconsistently — "Deh-Santis" over time. When a reporter asked his campaign for clarity on the matter during his run for governor in 2018, the spokesperson said he "prefers 'Dee-Santis.'"
It's common for Italian Americans like DeSantis to anglicize their names, swapping, in the governor's case, the Italian pronunciation of "day" with "deh," Professor William Connell, Seton Hall Unveristy's chair of Italian Studies, said.
"But 'Dee-Santis' is unusual because that would be spelled 'DiSantis' in Italian," he added.
Bill de Blasio, a fellow Italian American politician and former New York City mayor, affirmed that many of their colleagues use the "deh" pronunciation or one between "deh" and "day," and levied a critique of DeSantis' back-and-forth.
"People flip-flop and change their positions on things, but how you say your name is not one of them," he told Axios. "It's not negotiable!"
