Donald Trump said he is “honored” to have Ron DeSantis’ support in the Republican race for president, after the Florida governor made the shock decision to resign.
The former president said he now looks forward to working with the former rival to defeat Joe Biden in November, and once again called on the Republican Party to rally behind him.
During a visit to his headquarters in New Hampshire, he also said he would retire the nickname “DeSanctimonious,” which he often used in the battle for the White House.
Trump heads into the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday with a commanding lead over Nikki Haley after his landslide victory in Iowa.
Now he has one of the nation’s top Republican officials at his side, even as he has been widely mocked and given nicknames like “Meatball.”
Donald Trump said he is ‘honored’ to have Ron DeSantis’ support in the Republican presidential race after Florida’s governor made the shock decision to resign
Trump endorsed DeSantis in his 2018 bid for governor in Florida, using his coattails to win him the Republican nomination and ultimately victory
“With just days to go until President Donald J. Trump’s victory in New Hampshire, we are honored by the support of Governor Ron DeSantis and so many other former presidential candidates,” the Trump campaign said in a statement.
“Now is the time for all Republicans to unite behind President Trump to defeat Crooked Joe Biden and end his disastrous presidency.
“Nikki Haley is the candidate of the globalists and Democrats who will do everything they can to stop the America First movement. From higher taxes, to decimating Social Security and Medicare, to opening borders, she represents the views of Democrats more than Republicans.
‘It’s time to choose wisely.’
DeSantis, widely considered the future of the Republican Party and initially the favorite to take down Trump, announced in a surprise video announcement on Sunday afternoon that he would suspend his campaign.
It followed mounting speculation that donors were fleeing and that his campaign was struggling to find a way to make a dent in Trump’s huge lead in the polls.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended his presidential campaign on Sunday. Pictured: DeSantis during a campaign stop in Nashua, New Hampshire on January 19
DeSantis came in second in the Iowa caucuses and largely avoided campaigning in New Hampshire so he could focus on South Carolina — 2024 candidate Nikki Haley’s home state.
But the writing was on the wall as the campaign laid off half its staff, its backers grew increasingly frustrated with its war on “woke” and its top executives were at each other’s throats.
DeSantis channeled Winston Churchill in his farewell video, calling Haley a “repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism.”
His final warning was to Republicans not to “go back to the past” and confirmed that he would support Trump, the opponent who has mocked and humiliated him over the past year.
“We don’t have a clear path to victory,” DeSantis said in the video posted to X announcing his departure from the race. “Accordingly, I am suspending my campaign today.”
Now the Republican primaries are a two-way race, with only former President Trump and his former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley vying for the nomination.
“I want to tell Ron he ran a great race,” Haley said Sunday afternoon during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. “He has been a good governor and we wish him the best. That said, there’s now one guy and one lady left.”
Despite repeatedly criticizing Trump for refusing to debate in the primaries and taking several punches from the ex-president, the governor decided to support his former rival.
During the campaign, Trump called DeSantis a “traitor” for deciding to run for president in 2024 after the former president’s support helped him win the Republican nomination for governor in Florida in 2018.
“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said. “They see his presidency stymied by brutal resistance, and they see Democrats today using the law to attack him.”
He added: “Trump is superior to current incumbent Joe Biden. That is obvious.’
“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will keep that pledge.”
The pledge in question is what the Republican National Committee (RNC) required all candidates to sign, pledging to support the eventual nominee if they wanted to participate in their four primary debates last year. Trump never signed the pledge and refused to appear at the debates.
DeSantis’ young family accompanied him for most of his campaign time. Pictured: Ron, Casey, Madison, six, Mason, five, and Mamie, three, appear on stage together at a campaign event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Saturday, January 20 – the day before Governor DeSantis withdrew from the race
Casey and Ron DeSantis embrace during a caucus night party on Monday, January 15, in West Des Moines, Iowa, after the governor finished in second place in the first primary state
After no guidance was sent for events on Sunday or Monday ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, speculation began swirling about where DeSantis had landed after his Saturday swing.
The announcement of the end of his campaign was filmed in Florida, where it is now known he returned after holding his final campaign event of 2024 in South Carolina on Saturday.
Moments after the video went live, guidance was sent to cancel DeSantis’ meet and greet in Manchester, New Hampshire on Sunday evening.
DeSantis’ campaign strongly denied to DailyMail.com on Sunday any rumors that might surface about DeSantis’ plans to quit — but just hours later the governor released a video about X ending his bid.
“No one worked harder, and we left it all on the field,” DeSantis said in a four-and-a-half video about his departure from the campaign. “Now that we have finished second in Iowa, we have been praying and deliberating about the path forward.”
“If I could do anything to achieve a favorable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would,” he continued. “But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources.”
It looked like DeSantis would stay in the race until after South Carolina, hoping Haley would do poorly in her home state and drop out.
But he instead chose to leave before New Hampshire could weigh in on Tuesday.
“(Trump) has my support because we cannot go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear – a repackaged form of reheated corporatism – that Nikki Haley represents,” he said in a criticism of the former president’s sole remaining Republican nominee.
DeSantis’ launched his campaign during a disastrous Twitter Spaces event before CEO Elon Musk renamed the website to brought. -out
DeSantis’ final days in the race left him frantically trying to figure out where his message could best resonate after losing Iowa to Trump by 30 points.
After completing the “full Grassley” in Iowa by traveling to all 99 counties and receiving the endorsement of the state’s popular governor, Kim Reynolds, DeSantis still could not vote for a victory in the January 15 caucuses.
The day after the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis flew to Greenville, South Carolina to get a jump start on the fourth primary state, hoping voters there would turn against Nikki Haley.
After the quick stop in South Carolina, DeSantis flew back to New Hampshire later that day before CBS News announced Wednesday that the governor planned to leave the Granite State — possibly for good — to campaign again in South Carolina all weekend.
However, that trip ultimately lasted one day – with three events. It ended with headlines about how DeSantis sparred with a fourth-grade teacher over Haley’s education as governor.
On Sunday, instead of campaigning in South Carolina, DeSantis was scheduled to fly back to New Hampshire. But after canceling appearances on NBC’s Meet the Press and CNN’s State of the Union, it became clear something else was going on.
Hours later, on Sunday morning, he quit the race and canceled the remaining events.