Trump claims Ron DeSanti’s fired friend and campaign manager Phil Cox is a disaster

Donald Trump took to Truth Social Saturday night to rejoice at the “fire” of a key staff member who worked on rival Ron DeSantis’ campaign.

Phil Cox was seen as a core staffer on DeSantis’ 2022 gubernatorial reelection team and was one of the campaign’s first hires.

Cox joined the team in March 2021 and served as the campaign’s chief adviser for the entire duration of DeSantis’ bid for governor.

More recently, he was a senior adviser to the Never Back Down super-PAC that supported the governor’s bid for his 2024 presidency — but Saturday night it appeared he was no longer with the DeSantis campaign.

Trump was quick to suggest his departure was a sign of his rival’s failed campaign, which officially kicked off Wednesday.

“Ron DeSanctimonious, as in ‘The Apprentice,’ just fired his friend and campaign manager, Phil Cox, because his campaign is an unmitigated disaster and 2028 looks very bad,” Trump began.

“His campaign manager, who so deftly handled the Ted Cruz campaign against me, wanted to work for me, but was rejected – a ‘money robber’ like no other, and will not stop until he has every last penny. Now ‘Rob’ has to change the theme of his campaign from NEVER BACK TO WINNING IS NOT ALL!’ Trump wrote on Saturday night.

A reporter for Politics suggested that Cox was in fact “resigning” rather than being fired – even though the position at the Super PAC was a volunteer position and unpaid.

The timing of Cox’s departure comes just days after he was spotted playing on one of Trump’s golf courses.

Cox, along with Trump himself, participated in a LIV golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

His appearance follows news that advisory group GP3, of which Cox is a partner, also recently struck a deal with the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV tour.

Sources told ABC news the business relationship between Cox and the LIV Tournament had ruffled the feathers among staffers close to DeSantis and likely played a role in his departure from the DeSantis group.

“I am an unpaid, volunteer advisor to Never Back Down and proud to support Governor DeSantis,” Cox reaffirmed in a statement to ABC News on Thursday.

Cox didn’t really play alongside Trump, hitting the links several hours after Trump’s own start time.

His departure from the SuperPAC comes at the end of a week in which DeSantis campaign launched with disastrous technical issues.

The launch was scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, but Twitter couldn’t handle the traffic and its servers crashed repeatedly.

The event was initially delayed by half an hour, with the audio cutting out frequently.

At 6:30 p.m., the audio was still off and DeSantis had yet to utter a single word.

The outage was described as a ‘DeSaster’ and one of the most embarrassing campaign fiascos ever.

When things finally got going around 6:40 p.m., DeSantis took a swipe at the media, COVID public health mandates, and what he called the “woke Olympics” of the left.

He strengthened his hardline agenda in education and immigration – areas where he has vowed to go further than Donald Trump could have.

“We need to end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican party in recent years,” DeSantis said. “Government is not about entertainment, not about building a brand,” he said in a veiled hit on Trump.

In his campaign video, DeSantis said he was running to “lead our great American comeback” and presented Florida as a model for the nation. “We’ve proven it can be done,” DeSantis said in a voiceover. “We chose facts over fear, education over indoctrination, law and order over riot and disorder.”

At his Virginia golf course the next morning, Trump was ready to strike.

“I think he had a tough opening,” Trump said of DeSantis.

‘Wow! The launch of DeSanctus TWITTER is a DISASTER! His entire campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform,” he wrote.

By Thursday, DeSantis was trying to get past the glitches that outlined an aggressive itinerary as his allies insisted they remain well-funded and well-positioned for a long Republican primary fight ahead.

While DeSantis supporters privately acknowledged that the botched announcement was an unwanted distraction, there was a widespread feeling—even among some Republican critics—that it was likely to have limited long-term political ramifications, if any.

For the doubters, the campaign confirmed Thursday night that it had raised $8.2 million in the 24 hours since entering the race, a huge amount that far exceeded the amount President Joe Biden had raised in the same period.

Before Trump and DeSantis were leading rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, they were allies.

Trump gave DeSantis’ gubernatorial bid an early boost by tweeting his support even before DeSantis formally entered the race.

In his 2018 victory speech, DeSantis thanked the president by saying, “I think we’re going to have a great partnership.”

While the Florida governor has largely avoided confrontation with Trump, he has managed to throw back a few punches.

As prosecutors in New York prepared to charge Donald Trump, DeSantis criticized the investigation, but also said, “I don’t know what’s involved in paying a porn star hush money to ensure silence about some alleged affair.” ‘

In an interview with Piers Morgan that aired a few days later, he laughed off a question about the nicknames Trump used for him.

“I don’t know how to spell DeSanctimonious. I don’t know exactly what it means, but I like it. It is long, it has many vowels. I mean, so we agree with that. That’s fine. You can call me whatever you want as long as you call me a winner too,” DeSantis said.

On Wednesday, after his campaign launch, DeSantis avoided mentioning Trump by name, but did a subtle dig at him due to national Republican election losses.

“We need to end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican party over the past few years,” DeSantis said on Twitter Spaces.

The tired dogmas of the past are insufficient for a vibrant future. We have to look forward, not backward.’