On the day of the 2022 general election, Donald Trump sent a very clear message to Ron DeSantis with 2024 in mind: Don’t run, or you’ll see!
“I would tell you things about him that aren’t going to be very flattering, I know more about him than anybody, other than maybe his wife,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Trump’s rhetoric is the most outspoken threat he has made against DeSantis in recent weeks. At a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend, Trump referred to DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” something like “Sanctimonious Ron.”
That nickname came less than a month after Trump called it a “BIG MISTAKE” for DeSantis to endorse Colorado Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea.
O’Dea had previously told CNN’s Dana Bash that he would “actively” oppose the former president if he ran for the White House in 2024.
And it comes after Trump has repeatedly insisted that DeSantis would be reckless if he ran against him. “If I went up against him, I would beat him like everyone else,” Trump told Yahoo Finance in October of last year about DeSantis. “I think most people would retire, I think he would retire.”