Former President Donald Trump spent Wednesday morning slamming Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on his social media platform Truth Social as DeSantis gears up to announce a presidential campaign.
Trump posted several times attacking DeSantis's character, touting his record as president, and explaining why DeSantis will not win the GOP presidential nomination next year. This comes as DeSantis remains Trump's closest rival, according to multiple polls. In the run-up to DeSantis's campaign launch, super PACs allied with the two men have spent months engaged in a proxy war.
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"Look, Rob DeSanctimonious came to me asking for help. He was losing badly, by 31 points, to popular Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam," Trump wrote about the governor's first gubernatorial campaign in 2018. "He was getting ready to drop out of the race — Ran a terrible campaign! Ron told me he had one last chance, my Support & Endorsement, which Putnam, and everyone else, wanted also. I gave it to Ron, and the race was over. In one day, he went from losing badly, to winning by a lot. With 3 LARGE TRUMP RALLIES, he WON THE GENERAL ELECTION in an upset. DISLOYAL!!!"
The former president's tirade offers a window into what the next few months of the 2024 race will look like once DeSantis is a candidate. Trump has repeatedly attacked DeSantis's policy record before this week, leading to a decrease in DeSantis's poll numbers. Trump didn't hold back on Wednesday.
"Ron DeSanctus can’t win the General Election (or get the Nomination) because he VOTED TO OBLITERATE SOCIAL SECURITY, EVEN WANTING TO RAISE THE MINIMUM AGE TO 70 (or more!), VOTED TO BADLY WOUND MEDICARE, AND FOUGHT HARD AND VOTED FOR A 23% 'TAX ON EVERYTHING' SALES TAX," Trump posted.
"He was, and is, a disciple of horrible RINO Paul Ryan, and others too many to mention. Also, he desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet. A disloyal person!" Trump continued.
DeSantis has faced concerns about his ability to connect with voters and fellow Republicans, and not just from Trump. Some Republicans even publicly griped to the media about a lack of communication from the governor. New York billionaire John Catsimatidis isn't supporting DeSantis because the governor "doesn't even return [his] phone calls."
Trump didn't stop at just hammering DeSantis. He also took to slamming DeSantis's allies, namely former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who founded Never Back Down, the pro-DeSantis super PAC.
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"A man named Ken Cuccinelli, who failed miserably in his run for Governor of Virginia and then in his running the Ted Cruz campaign against me, worked for the Trump Administration on the Border, but just was not as good as some of the other people I had working on Border Security — 'THE BEST IN HISTORY,'" Trump wrote. "He was going nowhere with us, so now he works for DeSanctimonious, at supposedly a big Globalist like salary, and rips 'TRUMP' on Globalist FoxNews. Oh well, another one bites the dust!"
DeSantis is set to announce his presidential campaign via a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk and moderator David Sacks Wednesday evening. The super PAC supporting him, Never Back Down, aims to aid the governor with a $200 million war chest to take down Trump.