Trump has taken multiple swipes at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis since his mid-November announcement to run for president in 2024. For the most part, DeSantis has chosen not to engage Trump, dismissing him as part of the “noise” in the background.
However, on Tuesday, DeSantis responded to Trump’s multiple weekend jabs.
Responding to Trump’s criticism of the governor’s handling of the COVID pandemic, DeSantis said he has had “people attacking” him from “all angles,” but the verdict is ultimately up to the “people.”
Trump criticized DeSantis for issuing lockdowns in the early months of 2020. However, Florida was one of the first states to discontinue lockdowns and school closures and has been a leading voice arguing against mask and vaccine mandates.
Daily Caller chief national correspondent Henry Rodgers asked DeSantis to comment on Trump’s criticism: “Trump has criticized you a number of times in the past couple of days on a number of different issues, one of them being COVID in the state.”
DeSantis replied: “I roll out of bed; I have people attacking me from all angles. It’s been happening for many, many years. And if you look at the good thing about it, though, is like if you take a crisis situation like COVID, you know, the good thing about it is when you’re an elected executive, you gotta make all kinds of decisions.”
DeSantis continued: “You gotta steer that ship, and the good thing is that the people are able to render a judgment on whether they reelect you or not. I’m happy to say, you know, in my case, not only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican candidate has in the history of the state of Florida,”
“That verdict has been rendered by the people of the state of Florida,” DeSantis added.
On Sunday, Trump coupled his criticism of DeSantis’ policies with name-calling, referring to DeSantis as “DeSanctimonious.”
Attempting to discourage DeSantis from running for president in 2024, Trump warned that if the rising star chose to run in 2024, it would be “bad for the base” and “very disloyal” since he was “politically dead” before Trump endorsed him in his first bid for governor.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday:
“The revelations about Ron DeSanctimonious doing FAR WORSE than many other Republican governors, including that he unapologetically shut down Florida and its beaches, was interesting, indeed. DJT leading BIG!!!”
RTM previously reported that in a recent survey by the Western Conservative Summit, DeSantis polled three points higher than Trump and 42 points higher than Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
DeSantis has not announced a bid to run for president in 2024.
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