Former president Donald Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, onetime Republican primary rivals, seem to have buried the hatchet over the weekend.
Trump and DeSantis met in Florida to discuss general-election strategy for the first time since DeSantis dropped out of the GOP presidential primary in January and endorsed Trump, the former president confirmed on Monday.
“I am very happy to have the full and enthusiastic support of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida. We had a great meeting yesterday,” Trump said Monday on Truth Social. “The conversation mostly concerned how we would work closely together to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Also discussed was the future of Florida, which is FANTASTIC!”
The meeting was reported by multiple outlets over the weekend. Major Trump donor and real estate investor Steve Witkoff arranged the get-together at the Shell Bay Club. Witkoff is a mutual friend of Trump and DeSantis.
The pair reportedly spoke for several hours, and DeSantis agreed to help Trump, according to the Washington Post. Trump and his advisers and supporters are hoping that DeSantis will help Trump narrow the considerable fundraising gap between Trump and President Joe Biden, his general-election opponent.
DeSantis suspended his GOP presidential bid after losing handily to Trump in Iowa, the state where DeSantis’s campaign spent most of its time and resources. His campaign performed worse than expected given DeSantis’s fundraising prowess and national stardom bolstered by his dominant showing in his 2022 reelection to the Florida governorship.
The rivalry between DeSantis and Trump turned ugly during the campaign. DeSantis criticized Trump’s policy record, contrasting it with his conservative achievements in Florida and — in a dig at Trump’s conflict with Stormy Daniels — quipped, “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star.”
Trump and his team in turn frequently mocked DeSantis for his stature and mannerisms. The former president used demeaning nicknames for DeSantis, a tactic that dates back to Trump’s insurgent 2016 GOP primary victory. Years earlier, in 2017, then–President Trump endorsed DeSantis’s gubernatorial campaign, in a move the helped propel DeSantis to a narrow victory.
In 2024, after dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Trump, DeSantis said, “It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance. They watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance, and they see Democrats using lawfare to this day to attack him.”