Trump’s jokes about DeSantis again land flat as he ups criticism of potential 2024 rival
Donald Trump can’t seem to get his base on board with his lines of attack on Ron DeSantis — especially in both politicians’ home state of Florida.
While Trump has made mocking his opponents and political rivals a hallmark of his campaign style, his jokes about DeSantis fell flat with attendees at a local GOP dinner in Lee County on Friday.
When Trump directs his attacks at Democrats or less popular Republicans, he’s usually laughed out loud and clapped — but Republicans in Florida don’t take pleasure in it when the joke is their beloved governor.
“In Florida, I got 1.2 million more votes than your successful governor’s campaign,” Trump said Friday at the Lincoln Reagan dinner. ‘You know that. We have 1.2 million.’
Donald Trump’s attacks on Ron DeSantis do not appeal to the Republicans. Speaking at a Lee County GOP event, the former president got scattered chuckles at best as he mocked Florida’s governor
DeSantis has avoided responding directly to the attacks, but has made a few veiled swipes at Trump’s leadership style
He then used his voice to mock DeSantis and play off the governor who asked for his help during the 2018 gubernatorial race in the Sunshine State.
“Sir, I would like your support, sir. I would like to have your support. I’m at about three o’clock. I would like your support,” Trump repeated before giving his imaginary answer: “Okay, let’s think about it.”
He then dropped the performance and said, “Then there was such a thing as a rocket after I gave it.”
“Otherwise you’d have a lawyer looking for cases somewhere right now,” he claimed of DeSantis.
After Trump’s attack on DeSantis, there were a few awkward chuckles in the otherwise quiet room, prompting him to add, “If that.”
DeSantis received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2005 after completing his undergraduate degree from Yale. He served as a JAG officer in the Navy and overlapped his time as U.S. Representative to Florida for a few years before running for governor.
True, DeSantis trailed in the polls against his 2018 GOP primary opponent Adam Putnam, but got a boost in 2017 when Trump expressed his endorsement of the eventual winner. He went on to defeat Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum by a very narrow margin.
DeSantis’ 2022 reelection win was a landslide against Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist. The governor achieved the largest margin of victory in a Florida gubernatorial election since 1982 — even turning Miami-Dade County red after voting blue since 2022.
Trump has attributed DeSantis’ rise on the political scene to his support of the 2018 Florida gubernatorial race, saying any run against him in 2024 would be “disloyal”
Attendees at DeSantis’ victory rally chanted “two more years” instead of the usual “four more years” to show their support for a presidential run in 2024.
DeSantis has remained relatively neutral on the Trump issue.
The most poignant attack was, at best, a veiled swipe when DeSantis said that “leaders take the bull by the horns and make the decisions themselves.”
“They don’t outsource their leadership to health bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci,” DeSantis said during remarks over the weekend.
He was referring to Trump’s hiring of Dr. Anthony Fauci to take over the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which many Republicans believe had failed from the start.
DeSantis has not yet announced his candidacy for president, but has taken all the usual steps toward a bid for the White House, including a tour of the country and stops in key primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Trump has quickly stepped up his attacks on DeSantis after saying during a visit to the early primary state of South Carolina earlier this year that it would be “disloyal” for him to bid for the man who helped him win the Florida State house to win.
Many of the former president’s attacks on DeSantis haven’t produced the usual reaction he’s used to getting when he goes after his opponents.
At a rally in Waco, Texas last month, Trump attacked DeSantis at length, only to receive a remarkably subdued response from the usually frenzied MAGA crowd.
Trump’s impersonations have always been a big hit at his rallies and are a staple of his campaign speeches.
He said in Waco that DeSantis came to him with “tears in his eyes” and begged for approval, but the lack of response was far more remarkable than any raucous laughter at his mockery of Democrats like Hillary Clinton and one-time DeSantis challenger Andrew Gillum. .
On his social media, Trump has called the Florida governor “DeSanctimonious” and pointed to unsubstantiated claims that he had inappropriate relationships with underage students when he was a teacher in Georgia.