Donald Trump’s thinly veiled criticism of Ron DeSantis is backfiring

Former President Donald Trump’s thinly veiled jab at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not seem to go down properly with supporters throughout a GOP summit in his house state.

Each Trump and DeSantis claimed the state as their house in the course of the Florida Republican Occasion’s Freedom Summit in Kissimmee on Saturday.

Trump stays the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination, whereas DeSantis — who was initially anticipated to be Trump’s high challenger after profitable re-election in a landslide final 12 months — stays a distant second and has struggled since launching his marketing campaign in Might.

Challenges to DeSantis emerged when Trump invited to the stage a number of Florida lawmakers who had switched endorsements from DeSantis earlier than Saturday’s occasion.

Throughout his speech, Trump boasted of his broad lead with Republican voters and bragged about his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He went on to record a number of Republican governors who’ve achieved a “implausible job” of main their states via the pandemic, significantly deleting DeSantis and Florida.

“We did an amazing job on Covid,” Trump mentioned. “We by no means took credit score for the work we did. We allowed Republican governors to maintain their states open. Lots of them did that. Henry McMaster, South Carolina, did an amazing job. South Dakota did an amazing job. Tennessee did an amazing job. Lots of them, And preserve them open.”

As the group shouted “Florida,” Trump merely smiled and gave a thumbs up.

After a pause, he mentioned, “I’ll say this. Each Republican governor has achieved a lot better than the very best Democratic governor. That is true.”

Some took to social media to denounce Trump.

“Trump is visibly frightened when the group calls him out for leaving Ron DeSantis off his record of governors who’ve achieved an amazing job dealing with the coronavirus,” By no means Again Down, the tremendous PAC backing DeSantis’ bid for the presidency, wrote in a publish on X, beforehand Twitter.

One other DeSantis supporter wrote that Floridians “known as out Donald Trump for insulting Florida once more when he left @RonDeSantis off the record of Republican governors who did an amazing job on Covid. He knew what he was doing and he was caught red-handed.”

One other particular person wrote: “This clip is unbelievable. Donald Trump solely lists Republican states whose governors have supported him. The general public in Florida clearly sees that.”

Donald Trump DeSantis story is laughable

However Trump drew laughter when he advised the viewers how DeSantis begged for his endorsement in the course of the Florida governor’s race in 2018.

Trump mentioned DeSantis “had tears streaming from his eyes.”

He went on to current an image to the governor.

“I would like your help, sir. I would like your help please. I would like your fucking endorsement please.’ So I gave him the endorsement.”

Newsweek I contacted the Trump and DeSantis campaigns for remark by way of electronic mail.