It wasn’t long before Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted the tech-plagued start of 2024, and former President Donald Trump used Truth Social to start poking fun at his political rival.
Just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Trump penned a bizarre message targeting DeSantis but also relating to his relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
“Rob, my Red Button is bigger, better, stronger and working (TRUTH!), yours isn’t!” (according to my conversation with Kim Jung Un from North Korea who will soon be my friend!)” wrote Trump, naming the governor apparently with the wrong first name on purpose.
The former president quickly chimed in and poked fun at the less than smooth start of Ron DeSantis’ Twitter Spaces campaign announcement
Ahead of DeSantis’ planned announcement, Trump posted two videos on Truth Social in which he attacked the Florida governor.
In the first, Trump salutes DeSantis’ first gubernatorial win and positions the politician as a MAGA traitor.
The second video portrays Ron DeSantis as a member of the established political class, arguing that Trump is the only candidate capable of defying establishment forces and China and other US opponents.
Former first son Donald Trump Jr. sent one tweet an article calling DeSantis’ announcement a failure. He previously tweeted, “DeSantis is doing JEB!” I look energetic right now.’
The much-anticipated start of DeSantis’ presidential campaign started without a bang as the Twitter spaces he was scheduled to join with Elon Musk started 26 minutes late due to serious glitches.
Musk once said the “servers are overloaded” and the moderator blamed the disruption on the number of viewers, which he says is a “good thing”.
“Just try to get it started,” the audience could hear as it became clear the frustration was building.
Host David Sacks, a Musk-affiliated tech entrepreneur, began the conversation by claiming that with the announcement, DeSantis was “making social media for the first time” by “making history.”
However, the event will be remembered more for its series of breakdowns.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially entered the 2024 Republican presidential primary Wednesday night with a Twitter Spaces discussion that didn’t work for about a half hour before the announcement could be made official
Don Jr. sent out a handful of tweets mocking the technical difficulties
DeSantis makes JEB! I look energetic right now.
— Donald Trump Jr (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 24, 2023
As the event finally got underway, DeSantis confirmed to the Tesla and Twitter CEO that he had entered the Republican presidential race just hours after filing the relevant paperwork needed to run for the White House.
“Thank you for putting up with these technical issues. We’re definitely breaking new ground here,” Sacks said as the event began. “To my knowledge, no major presidential candidate has ever announced his candidacy on social media like this.”
Throughout the conversation, DeSantis managed to introduce his presidential platform to an audience of at times around 300,000 people for the first time as an official candidate.
DeSantis also threw a veiled dig at Trump by claiming he will end the recent Republican “culture of losing.”
Just an hour before the video was released, Trump received another dig at the man he assumed was his main competitor.
“I want to personally congratulate ‘Rob’ DeSanctimonious on finally announcing that he will be running for President of the United States,” he wrote.
“Hopefully he will have the full experience of being attacked by our country’s marxists, communists and left-wing crazies without ever knowing what kind of job he is doing.”
Trump added, “These lowlifes & misfits are far worse than the leaders of hostile foreign countries. They must be decisively defeated to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’
Prior to the campaign season, Trump and DeSantis had a good working relationship. Trump now claims that he is the reason for DeSantis’ success and that the Florida governor is betraying him by running for office
Trump still has a comfortable lead over DeSantis right now — and all other Republican challengers for 2024
In response to the chaotic start to the Twitter Spaces announcement, Democratic National Committee spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement, “In true Ron DeSantis fashion, his presidential election was literally not ready for prime time.” Welcome running around the MAGA base, Ron!’
DeSantis is widely believed to be the only candidate who could rival Trump in the 2024 primary.
But Trump still holds a commanding lead over DeSantis — and all other Republican challengers in 2024 — in the polls.
The former president has an outright majority and leads the way with 53 percent support from Republicans in the latest CNN/SSRS poll released Wednesday. That doubles his support among voters as DeSantis’ 26 percent support.