Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has had a love-hate relationship with former President Donald Trump.
From lauding Trump and seeking his endorsement when running for governor to running against him and incurring his wrath, DeSantis has resigned himself to believing Trump will become the 2024 GOP presidential nominee.
Though Trump has harshly criticized DeSantis, the former president listed him as a possible VP pick during Tuesday’s town hall with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.
DeSantis formally endorsed Trump after suspending his presidential campaign in December but, unlike former contenders Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott, DeSantis has not been active on the campaign trail in support of Trump.
DeSantis has raised eyebrows by traveling to South Carolina this week but being notably absent in supporting Trump in advance of the coming primary.
Perhaps feeling the heat, DeSantis made a pro-Trump statement to the press on Wednesday, predicting Trump will easily defeat his last GOP rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Speaking of Haley, who also served as Trump’s ambassador to the U.N., DeSantis said: “If you have a path, you have every right to be running … even if [you are at] one percent.”
“But if the path isn’t there,” DeSantis continued, “then I think: At what point is the purpose of this? And I think that would actually just be how everyone looks at it.”
“What I didn’t understand about Nikki — and I still don’t understand it today,” added DeSantis, “is we have a voter base in the Republican Party. And I think if you look at the Iowa results, it’s a good example.”
Claiming that Haley has no path to victory because she does not have the support of the Republican base, DeSantis said: “Eighty-five percent of the registered Republicans voted for either Trump or me, effectively … so that’s just a big conservative base, right? To try to appeal to people who aren’t a part of that base for a primary — I just didn’t understand that,” the governor said, explaining that the strategy simply will not work.
The Florida governor added: “It was clear to me after … Iowa that she just didn’t have support among Republicans, and I’ve never seen anyone win a Republican nomination by focusing on non-Republican voters. It just doesn’t work.”
Noting that he has taken his own advice, DeSantis noted: “And so that was why after Iowa — and I took it, you know, four or five days to analyze all the data, look at the path forward — I didn’t make a flippant decision, but I looked at it, [and suspended my campaign].”
Regarding Haley’s chances in her home state of South Carolina, DeSantis said: “There’s no question that South Carolina is going to be a big victory for Donald Trump because he appeals to core Republicans in a way that Nikki Haley just does not or is not trying to.”
DeSantis at SC State House: “There’s no doubt that South Carolina is going to be a big victory for Donald Trump because he appeals to core Republicans in a way that Nikki Haley does not or is not trying to.” pic.twitter.com/UVV51Syfgr
— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) February 20, 2024
Of Trump, DeSantis said, “He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear — a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism — that Nikki Haley represents. The days of putting Americans last, of kowtowing to large corporations, of caving to woke ideology, are over.”
