Former President Donald Trump believes that Ron DeSantis exploring a presidential “exploratory committee” is a sign the Florida Governor is worried about 2024.
“He’s going to form an exploratory committee to determine – well that’s a big step because he said he was never looking at committees. Now he’s looking at committees. It’s amazing what being 40 down does,” Trump said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast Saturday. “The donors are largely leaving him now.”
Trump also rehashed his familiar narrative about his pivotal 2018 endorsement of DeSantis, and subsequent disappointment of the Florida Governor’s apparent political ambitions.
“DeSantis is failing badly. Ron De-sanctimonious,” Trump said, as transcribed by Fox Business.
“It’s always bad. You endorse somebody. He’s dead. He’s over, his political career. He’s going to be looking for a job. He’ll be lucky to get a job. Comes to me, begs me for an endorsement. I give it to him. He ends up winning the election, winning the nomination, winning the election by numbers you wouldn’t believe. I mean he was so far down he was gone, and then they shout to him a couple years later, ‘when do you run against the president?’ ‘Oh, I have no comment.’ No comment means the answer is yes.”
NBC News reports that moves are being made in the next few weeks, with an exploratory committee indeed being explored.
Trump’s comments come as DeSantis appears to be dealing with donor attrition and less than optimal polling.
On Monday and Tuesday, an Emerson College poll in the field shows Donald Trump consolidating Republican support in a potential presidential race, with 62% of voters polled choosing the former President.
DeSantis was 46 points behind in second place, pulling 16% support — his worst showing in any national survey of the 2024 field in recent memory.
The Emerson poll is significantly worse for DeSantis than the FiveThirtyEight average of polls, which shows a Trump aggregate trend. The former President leads DeSantis 51% to 24% on average, with Pence at 6% and Nikki Haley at 4%.
The post Donald Trump mocks Ron DeSantis ‘exploratory committee’ reports appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
