Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tore into 2024 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump Thursday over the former president’s habit of name-calling, saying the trait was “one of the reasons he’s not in the White House now.”
“I think it’s so petty. I think it’s so juvenile. I don’t think that’s what voters want,” DeSantis, 44, told New Hampshire radio host Jack Heath on the second full day of his post-campaign launch tour of early voting states.
“And honestly, I think that his conduct — which he’s been doing for years now — I think that’s one of the reasons he’s not in the White House now, because I think he alienated too many voters for things that really don’t matter,” the governor went on. “So I don’t get in the gutter on any of that.”
DeSantis went on to point out “substantive differences” between himself and Trump, including the ex-president’s “siding with Andrew Cuomo in New York” on the question of who handled the COVID-19 pandemic better in their state.
“He’s saying Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York handled COVID better than Florida did under my leadership, and yet people fled Cuomo’s lockdowns to come to Florida by the tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands,” the Republican presidential hopeful said.
“He’s also attacked me for opposing an immigration amnesty bill,” he added. “I opposed that because I was upholding America First principles.”
Trump, 76, took to his Truth Social account Wednesday night to mock DeSantis and claim the Florida governor has moved to “change” his name pronunciation.
“Have you heard that ‘Rob’ DeSanctimonious wants to change his name, again. He is demanding that people call him DeeeSantis, rather than DaSantis,” the former president said on his social media platform.
“Actually, I like ‘Da’ better, a nicer flow, so I am happy he is changing it. He gets very upset when people, including reporters, don’t pronounce it correctly. Therefore, he shouldn’t mind, DeSanctimonious?”
The ex-commander-in-chief kept up the stream of insults by posting an article referring to DeSantis as “a Trump knockoff” as well as a statement from Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) attacking the governor for his “ingratitude” after Trump endorsed his first gubernatorial campaign in 2018.
Still another post joked about former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s weight, sharing a tweet from Trump ally Roger Stone about the soon-to-be Republican candidate.
“@ChrisChristie needs to run. Not for President. He just needs to run,” Stone said on Twitter above a picture of Christie looming large, which Trump reposted to Truth Social.
Christie, who plans to announce his campaign Tuesday in New Hampshire, will join Trump, DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. and ex-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), conservative radio host Larry Elder and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, among others, in the primary.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum are also set to launch their campaigns next week.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has yet to announce whether he will run in 2024.
Trump is currently leading the GOP primary field with around 53% support, followed by DeSantis at roughly 22%, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
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