Trump celebrates DeSantis’ decision to drop out, ending a bitter feud that defined the 2024 campaign

ROCHESTER, N.H. — ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump on Sunday night set aside months of criticism and mockery of Ron DeSantis and celebrated his former Republican rival as his newest supporter after the Florida governor ended his presidential campaign and endorsed the former president.

For Trump, it has become a familiar ritual to welcome the support of someone who once tried to antagonize him. Still, at Sunday’s rally in New Hampshire, it was notable to see Trump praise DeSantis without calling him “DeSantimonious” or “DeSanctus,” ending perhaps the most bitter rivalry of Republicans’ 2024 campaign .

“I just want to thank Ron and congratulate him on a very good job,” Trump said at the start of his remarks. “He was very friendly and supportive. I appreciate that and I am also looking forward to working with Ron.” Trump described DeSantis as “a truly wonderful person.”

Earlier in the day, DeSantis said via video that he would end his campaign two days before the Republican Party’s first primary in New Hampshire. But beyond Trump’s joy on Sunday night, it wasn’t the warmest show of support.

“It is clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said, offering a business-like analysis with a forced smile without adding any praise for Trump.

“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will keep that pledge,” he continued, before making a comment about the remaining candidate, Nikki Haley. DeSantis described the former U.N. ambassador and former governor of South Carolina as a stand-in. for ‘the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism.’

Trump seemed unconcerned about DeSantis’ approach and struck a tone of camaraderie as fellow political warriors. “I’ll tell you it’s not easy,” Trump said in Rochester on Sunday evening. “They think it’s easy to do this stuff, right? It is not easy.”

Brenda Moneypenny, a 64-year-old from Alton, waited two hours in the cold to see Trump on Sunday evening. She pulled out her driver’s license to prove her last name and explained that she is a registered independent who often votes Republican. Moneypenny said she considered Haley, especially for the opportunity to elect the first woman president. But she never thought about DeSantis.

“Too bland,” Moneypenny said of the governor. “He needs better campaign people. There is no one to please him right now.”

Ultimately, she chose Trump: “Tried and true,” she said.

The former president seemed to relish stringing DeSantis along throughout the campaign, often making it clear that it was a personal grudge for seeing the governor’s decision to run in the first place as an act of disloyalty considered. Trump endorsed DeSantis, then a congressman, in a competitive 2018 Republican Party primary for Florida governor. DeSantis went on to win the nomination and the general election. By the time DeSantis won a landslide re-election four years later, however, he was positioning himself for his own campaign in the White House.

As recently as November, Trump came to Florida and addressed a rowdy crowd at a state GOP rally, standing in front of a sign that read: “Florida is Trump Country.” That evening, Trump didn’t mention DeSantis until more than 30 minutes into his speech. Even then, it was to brag about polls showing his advantages over the governor.

“I supported him, and he became a rocket within 24 hours,” Trump said, claiming DeSantis begged for his endorsement. “Now he is like a wounded bird falling from the sky.”

Trump has never debated DeSantis or any other 2024 rival. He has said he would not do so until someone proves they are a legitimate threat to him winning the nomination.

DeSantis has focused his campaign in recent months in Iowa, where he finished in second place in last week’s caucuses — 30 percentage points behind Trump and barely ahead of Haley. Haley, meanwhile, has long prioritized New Hampshire as a potential springboard for her primary in her home state of South Carolina next month.

In Iowa, APVoteCast polls of caucusgoers suggested that DeSantis’ supporters were far more likely than Haley’s supporters to consider themselves conservatives who would support Trump no matter what if he wins the nomination and faces President Joe Biden in November. If that trend continues in New Hampshire, Trump can expect at least some momentum if DeSantis drops out, and whatever he gets could increase his margin and frustrate Haley’s ability to claim any momentum. Trump’s aides have even said they expect DeSantis’ support to shift sharply toward Trump across the country.

Trump noted Sunday that he won the 2016 New Hampshire primary by about 20 points. He lost the battleground state twice in general elections.

On Monday, he plans to attend a civil defamation trial in New York, following a columnist’s claims that he sexually assaulted her. He will then return to New Hampshire for an evening meeting in Laconia.

___ Barrow reported from Atlanta.