DeSantis Defends Controversial Anti-Trump Ad Some Conservatives Complain is Anti-LGBT

After taking criticism for a campaign ad attacking Donald Trump’s performance on LGBT issues, Ron DeSantis defended the video, saying it was “fair game.”
He responded to backlash about the ad in an interview on July 5 with Tomi Lahren on her show “Tomi Lahren is Fearless,” a production of the conservative news organization Outkick, owned by Fox Corp.
The ad in question was posted to the DeSantis War Room page on Twitter on June 30.
“What was the intent of that video?” Ms. Lahren asked the Florida governor and candidate for the Republican nomination for president.
Former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign event in Pickens, S.C., on July 1, 2023. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
The point of the ad, Mr. DeSantis said, was “identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream when he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants….}