Donald Trump referred to Florida’s governor as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ on Sunday night, capping a weekend in which the former president attacked his potential Republican rival in 2024.
In two posts on his Truth Social app, Trump used the slur to accuse DeSantis of being a “globalist” and of having “shut down Florida and its beaches” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ex-return president’s to using the alias indicates that he is prepared for all-out political warfare against his rising rival. Trump is incensed by DeSantis’ failure to rule out a run for the White House in the upcoming election cycle, despite the fact that he has not formally stated his intention to run for president.
Trump rolled out his ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ slogan for the first time at a rally in Pennsylvania just three days before the midterm elections, and was immediately attacked by prominent Republicans for assaulting the governor on the eve of his re-election quest.
He first retreated and even encouraged people to vote for DeSantis the following day before gradually resuming his attacks.
Former President Donald Trump’s assaults against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are intensifying, and he appears increasingly anxious that the popular Republican leader could run for president himself in 2024.
In the first of two posts published on Sunday night, Trump praised the media for its coverage of his first two campaign rallies, which took place on Saturday in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
That day, when speaking to reporters on his campaign plane, Trump warned DeSantis that it would be ‘disloyal’ for him to run in 2024.
Several hours later, he wrote on Truth Social, ‘The revelations about Ron DeSanctimonious doing FAR WORSE than many other Republican governors, including that he unapologetically shut down Florida and its beaches, were indeed quite intriguing.
Trump added, in the third person, “DJT leading BIG!!!”
In his second post, published shortly after midnight on Monday, Trump went off on a weird tangent attacking the conservative organization Club For Growth, and suddenly DeSantis got dragged into the fray.
The fact that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has not yet ruled out a White House run has angered the former president, who was the first Republican to enter the 2024 race.
Since the midterm elections of 2022, when they clashed over two prominent Republican Senate primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the important organization has been at war with Trump.
It also undermined his November 15 presidential announcement by releasing a survey the day prior that showed Trump losing to DeSantis in the early 2024 election.
‘The Club For No Growth is a GLOBALIST group that I have been taking to the cleaners for years. We worked together for a period, but they couldn’t get away from China, Europe, Asia, and part’s unknown,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social in the early hours of Monday morning.
‘They know I won’t play that game, I am America First all the way. That’s the ONLY way we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
‘Ron DeSanctimonious, who I made Governor in BOTH the Primary & the General, is also a Globalist, & so are his donors.’
He also tried to link DeSantis to Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida who Trump soundly defeated for the GOP nomination in 2024 – despite the former’s place in one of America’s foremost political dynasties.
Trump officially kicked off his third presidential campaign with stops in the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday.
‘When I hear that [DeSantis] might [run] I think it’s very disloyal,’ he told CNN and Politico on his plane.
In his first of two Truth Social posts wheeling out his ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ line, Trump accused the Florida governor of shutting down his state during the pandemic
In the second post, Trump also took aim at conservative group Club For Growth
He also once again took credit for DeSantis’ narrow 2018 victory – which later led to a landslide re-election in 2022.
‘Ron would have not been governor if it wasn’t for me,’ Trump said.
DeSantis has so far been unwilling to take on Trump in public, a strategy that’s appeared to pay off for him up until now.
He’s seen his GOP star rise throughout the Biden administration with his vocal opposition to Joe Biden’s progressive policies.
He’s also made his own name for himself with Trump’s MAGA base by wading into the culture wars with LGBTQ-targeted legislation and taking on Critical Race Theory in schools.
But through it all DeSantis has repeatedly insisted that his focus is on Florida, when asked about his 2024 ambitions. It’s done little to quell the buzz, especially among fellow Republicans.
‘Obviously, DeSantis and Trump are the two candidates, right, whether he’s declared or not,’ New Hampshire’s GOP Gov. Chris Sununu said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.