Details are emerging from Sunday’s meeting in Miami of presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In the latest sign of rapprochement between the two after DeSantis withdrew from the presidential race in January after the Iowa caucuses, a key Trump advisor who helped the Governor get elected in 2018 characterized the meeting as friendly and substantive, with DeSantis offering assistance on the road to November.
“The meeting was fine, went long, ended with a handshake. They discussed the full range of policy issues and politics, too. Ron’s role in the campaign is yet to be determined, but he was clear that he wanted to help in every way he could,” asserted Susie Wiles Sunday to Florida Politics.
DeSantis endorsed Trump when he announced his exit from the presidential race, but hasn’t avoided tweaking the former President, including a recent call to reporters to ask Trump what he thinks about the state’s abortion law, which Trump criticized when DeSantis was still an opponent.
Meanwhile, polling has shown DeSantis topping preferences as Trump’s running mate, despite DeSantis repeatedly ruling out being the former President’s ticket mate.
“Would you take it if it were offered to you? I don’t think I would be good at it and I think I’m probably, you know, more valuable doing other things,” he said during an Outkick interview last year, noting that “doing No. 2” just “doesn’t appeal” to him.
DeSantis also pushed back against a CFO Jimmy Patronis-backed proposal to provide up to $5 million from a fund that gives public money to qualified statewide candidates to a Florida resident who is “subject to political discrimination to pay for legal fees,” leading to the legislation being withdrawn soon after it was filed.
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