Former President Donald Trump issued a lengthy diatribe weighing in on the media’s cheerleading of Ron DeSantis, who recently won his midterm election by nearly 20 points, and revealing his sentiments on the Florida governor’s refusal to dismiss a possible 2024 presidential bid.
Posting to Truth Social Thursday evening, Trump criticized the media for going all-in on DeSantis, who he called a “an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations.”
“This is just like 2015 and 2016, a Media Assault (Collusion!), when Fox News fought me to the end until I won, and then they couldn’t have been nicer or more supportive,” Trump said of the media’s recent efforts to blame Republican losses on him, while exalting DeSantis.
Trump also described how he came in to save DeSantis when his 2018 gubernatorial campaign was struggling to overcome a worthy adversary in Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
“When I Endorsed [DeSantis], it was as though, to use a bad term, a nuclear weapon went off,” Trump wrote. “Years later, they were the exact words that Adam Putnam used in describing Ron’s Endorsement. He said, “I went from having it made, with no competition, to immediately getting absolutely clobbered after your Endorsement.”
The 45th president also chastised DeSantis for failing to throw cold water on rumors he could challenge Trump in a bid for the Republican nomination in 2024.
“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games!” Trump fumed. “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.”
The ex-president’s message will likely be seen as an indication of a growing rift in the Republican Party, where a civil war of sorts appears to be forming between diehard Trump supporters and disillusioned MAGA Republicans.
Trump’s message Thursday also followed a post-midterm Truth update Wednesday, where the former president pointed out he won more votes in the state than DeSantis recently earned.