Former president Trump said Monday that he’ll “handle” it if Florida governor Ron DeSantis decides to run against him in the 2024 presidential race.
While DeSantis has not formally announced whether he intends to run, he is largely considered a top GOP contender. DeSantis is likely to wait to make an announcement until after Florida’s legislative session ends in May, according to several reports.
“I got him elected, pure and simple,” Trump said during an appearance on The Water Cooler podcast hosted by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody. The former president credited the rallies he hosted for DeSantis with helping get the Florida Republican elected against Democrat Andrew Gillum in 2018.
“So, now I hear he might want to run against me. So, we’ll handle that the way I handle things,” Trump said.
Trump previously lashed out against DeSantis shortly after the midterms in November, dubbing the governor “Ron DeSanctimonious” and taking credit for the Florida governor’s political rise. DeSantis had handily won a second term, while Trump was the subject of intense criticism among Republicans after many of his handpicked candidates failed to win on Election Day.
“Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017 — he was politically dead, losing in a landslide to a very good Agriculture Commissioner, Adam Putnam, who was loaded up with cash and great poll numbers. Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win,” Trump said in November.
He said he later boosted DeSantis past Gillum, then the “star” of the Democratic Party. Trump said he “fixed” DeSantis’s campaign, “which had completely fallen apart,” by holding two “massive Rallies.”
“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games! The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer,” Trump said at the time.
In the wake of the midterms, polling has shown mixed results for Trump, a FiveThirtyEight analysis found. Averages compiled by the election forecaster show that DeSantis is typically ahead in head-to-head polling against Trump, with DeSantis at 48 percent and Trump at 43 percent.
However, adding in other potential candidates seems to chip away at the governor’s lead. In national polling matchups that include DeSantis, Trump, and at least one other potential candidate, Trump has had an average lead of 41 percent to 31 percent since the midterms, per FiveThirtyEight.
On Monday, Trump also went on to criticize evangelical leaders who have not endorsed him after he announced his 2024 run, saying it is a “sign of disloyalty.”
“There’s great disloyalty is the world of politics, and that’s a sign of disloyalty,” he said. “Because nobody — as you know better than anybody because you do such a great job — nobody has ever done more for right-to-life than Donald Trump.”