Donald Trump has branded Ron DeSantis “very disloyal” for reportedly considering running for the White House.
As Trump kicked off his 2024 candidacy with stops in New Hampshire and South Carolina, he was once again credited with helping DeSantis run for Florida governor in 2018.
“Without me, Ron would not have become governor,” Trump told reporters on board his plane on Saturday. “If I then hear that he might run away, I think that’s very disloyal.”
The former president also slammed DeSantis for shutting down Florida for a “long time” during the COVID-19 pandemic when other Republican states weren’t, claiming the governor and his team were “trying to rewrite history.” to write”.
Trump’s stops in the states for early voting this weekend were the first campaign appearances since announcing his last run more than two months ago.
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As former President Donald launched his bid for the 2024 White House on Saturday, he took a stab at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling his rival’s potential presidential nomination “very disloyal.”
The former president also slammed DeSantis for shutting down Florida for a “long time” during the COVID-19 pandemic when other Republican states weren’t
After his speech in South Carolina, Trump said it would be “a great act of disloyalty” if DeSantis defied him in the primary and recognized the governor’s first pick.
“If he runs, that’s fine. I’m high in the polls,” Trump said. “He’ll have to do what he wants, but he might run away.
“I think it would be a major act of disloyalty because, you know, I brought him in. He didn’t stand a chance. His political life was over.”
Trump initially backed DeSantis in the 2018 gubernatorial primary campaign, but said Saturday that he hadn’t spoken to him in a long time.
He has since called DeSantis an “average governor” and “Ron DeSanctimonious.” On Saturday, Trump slammed the Florida governor’s COVID response.
“There are Republican governors who haven’t shut down their states,” Trump told reporters. “Florida was closed for a long time. They’re trying to rewrite history,” he added.
“I’ve had governors decide not to close anything and that’s because of them,” he said, defending his decision to leave it up to individual state governors.
Trump also slammed DeSantis’ shifting stance on vaccines, saying the Florida governor had “majorly changed his tune.”
While Trump remains the only declared presidential candidate for 2024, potential challengers, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, are expected to begin their campaigns in the coming months will.
Trump, who initially supported DeSantis in the 2018 gubernatorial primary campaign, said it would be “a great act of disloyalty” to oppose him in the primary
Trump’s stops in the states for early voting this weekend were the first campaign appearances since announcing his last run. Pictured: Trump announced his third consecutive run for the White House on November 15
Trump told reporters Saturday that Nikki Haley called him recently to say she was considering launching a 2024 presidential bid.
“I talked to her for a while, I said, ‘Look, you know, if you want to run, go with your heart,'” Trump said. “She said publicly that I would never run against my president, he was a great president.”
Trump said he told Haley she “should do it.”
In New Hampshire, Trump promoted his campaign agenda, including immigration and crime, and said his policies are the opposite of President Joe Biden’s.
He cited the Democrats’ move to change the election calendar, which cost New Hampshire its leading spot, and accused Biden, a fifth-place finisher in New Hampshire in 2020, of “nefariously destroying this beloved political tradition.”
“I hope you will remember this during the general election,” Trump told party members. Trump himself won the primary twice, but lost the state to the Democrats each time.
Later in South Carolina, Trump said he plans to keep the state’s presidential primary as “first in the South,” calling it “a very important state.”
Trump told reporters Saturday that Nikki Haley called him recently to say she was considering launching a 2024 presidential bid
In his speech, he rushed from criticizing Biden and the Democrats to derogatory comments about transgender people, mockery of people promoting the use of electric stoves and electric cars, and recalled efforts as president to increase oil production, secure trade deals and to crack on migration at the US-Mexico border.
Trump’s campaign has caused controversy in its early stages, notably when he dined with Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who made a string of anti-Semitic comments. Trump was also widely ridiculed for selling a series of digital trading cards depicting him as a superhero, cowboy, and astronaut, among other things.
He is the subject of a number of criminal investigations, including an investigation into the discovery of hundreds of documents with secret markings at his Florida club and whether he obstructed justice by refusing to return them, as well as state and federal investigations of his efforts to overthrow them the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.
Still, early polls show he’s a favorite to win his party’s nomination.