DeSantis gathers supporters ahead of the formal launch of the presidential campaign

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared his presidential campaign all but outright on Thursday in a call with donors, declining top rival Donald Trump as ineligible.

DeSantis rallied key supporters and backers on the conference call, arguing that he is the only Republican with a chance of defeating President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.

DeSantis also took several veiled swipes at Trump, the current front-runner in the GOP presidential primaries, hinting that the former president is putting himself in front of his party.

“There are those who raise money just for themselves,” DeSantis said, according to one New York Times reporter who listened to the call, a clear reference to criticism that Trump’s PAC hoarded a war chest during the midterms and was not doing enough to support GOP candidates.

DeSantis will officially launch his campaign by filing papers with the Federal Election Commission on May 24, with a more formal kickoff event scheduled around June 1. CBS news reported, citing three sources.

In a donor call, DeSantis also took several veiled swipes at Trump, the current front-runner in the GOP presidential primaries

A DeSantis spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com late Thursday.

During the donor call, DeSantis said there were only three “credible” candidates for the 2024 presidential race, and that he was the only one who could win both the GOP primaries and the general election.

“You basically have three people right now who are credible in this whole thing,” Mr. DeSantis told donors during the appeal, organized by the super PAC that supports him, Never Back Down.

Biden, Trump and me. And I think those three, two have a shot at being elected president — Biden and I, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people take their of him, he argued.

Biden officially announced on April 25 that he will seek a second term as president in the 2024 election.

In addition to Trump, former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, former governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy include GOP candidates running for office.

U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina also plans to officially announce his presidential campaign on Monday, a person familiar with the matter told DailyMail.com.

But once DeSantis speaks out, the high-profile governor immediately becomes Trump’s biggest rival in the primary race, upending a contest that has been largely one-sided until now.

Biden, seen visiting Japan on Thursday, officially announced on April 25 that he will seek a second term as president in the 2024 election

Once DeSantis declares, the high-profile governor immediately becomes Trump’s biggest rival in the primary race, upending a contest that has been largely one-sided until now.

DeSantis will likely file paperwork to announce his candidacy ahead of a major meeting with donors in Miami on May 25, due to election rules requiring a candidate to formally declare himself before fundraising.

The invitation to the May 25 event stated that donors would be put to “work,” an obvious allusion to raising money for DeSantis, according to a source familiar with the event.

According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, Trump has intensified his political attacks on the Florida governor in recent weeks and will retain the lead in the 2024 Republican primary.

DeSantis’s insistence on staying out of the race until the Florida legislature wrapped up its spring session earlier this month baffled some high-profile Republican donors who had wanted him to step in sooner rather than later to counter Trump’s.

Those attacks have taken a toll on DeSantis’ standing in national polls.

But in the donor call Thursday, DeSantis suggested his ability to respond to attacks and criticism would soon change, a veiled reference to becoming a candidate.

Notably, DeSantis didn’t mention his growing war with the Walt Disney Company during the donor call, which came the same day Disney canceled plans for a new $1 billion campus in central Florida.

The Walt Disney Co. and its powerful CEO on Thursday took their war with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to a new level, announcing it will scrap a new $1 billion planned campus in Orlando (above) that would have brought 2,000 jobs to the state

First announced in July 2021, the project was expected to move 2,000 jobs from California to Lake Nona, about 20 miles east of the massive Disney World complex in Orlando.

Canceling the project and saying the 2,000 employees would remain in California, Disney quoted “new leadership and changing business conditions” in a memo, apparently referring to returning CEO Bob Iger and his feud with DeSantis.

DeSantis and his advisers hoped to use the Florida legislature, which adjourned May 5, as a springboard to a campaign announcement. They have stayed true to their timetable.

Republican lawmakers have landed DeSantis a slew of conservative victories in recent months: They expanded the state’s school voucher program, banned the use of public money for sustainable investment efforts, scrapped diversity programs at public universities, allowed unauthorized carrying of concealed weapons, and perhaps the most notably nearly all abortions banned in the state.

DeSantis has had help preparing his candidacy.

A new political action committee backing him, Never Back Down, which can raise unlimited funds, has hired staff in states with early elections and is running TV ads defending DeSantis and beating Trump.

DeSantis, 44, was reelected as governor last year, beating his Democratic opponent by nearly 20 percentage points.