Former President Donald Trump says he isn’t sweating a potential 2024 primary challenge from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I hear he might want to run against me, so we’ll handle that the way I handle things,” Trump, 76, shrugged Monday during an interview on Real America’s Voice’s “The Water Cooler” podcast.
Trump also repeated the claim that his endorsement catapulted DeSantis into the Florida governor’s mansion in 2018, telling host David Brody his fellow Republican “was ready to drop out of the race.”
“He was at 3[%],” the former president added. “It was all done … I got him elected, pure and simple.”
In fact, DeSantis entered the race for governor days after Trump tweeted an initial endorsement in December 2017, and still had to overhaul a sizable primary deficit against former congressman Adam Putnam.
Monday’s remarks were just the latest shot across DeSantis’ bow by Trump, who has previously called his fellow Floridian an “average REPUBLICAN Governor” and “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
Former President Donald Trump repeated his claim that his endorsement helped DeSantis into the Florida governor’s mansion in 2018. AFP via Getty Images/ Mandel Ngan
DeSantis entered the race for governor days after Trump tweeted an initial endorsement in December 2017. Getty Images/Octavio Jones“All of that is just noise,” DeSantis told reporters in November. “At the end of the day I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night” — referring to his landslide re-election victory over Democrat Charlie Crist while Trump-backed GOP candidates did worse than expected in the midterms.
Though DeSantis has not yet formally announced a White House run, recent polls show him leading Trump in a hypothetical 2024 presidential primary, as well as a potential general election matchup against President Biden.
