Former President Donald Trump suggested that his attacks against his Republican challenger Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are personal in the second part of his exclusive interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, saying that he finds it “very disloyal” that DeSantis joined the 2024 presidential race after he helped him get elected in Florida.
Trump, who is battling DeSantis for theGOP presidential nomination, was discussing the COVID response of several Republican governors when he invoked the Florida governor’s nickname, “Rob DeSanctimonious” during the second part of the hour-long interview that aired Tuesday on “Special Report.”
“Why do you use that name?” Baier interjected.
“I got him elected,” Trump replied. “And I thought it was very disloyal when he said ‘Yes, I’d run.’ I got him past two races.”
“I’m a big loyalist,” Trump continued. “Some people right here in this room tell me ‘sir don’t worry about loyalty, it doesn’t mean anything in politics.’ I said, to me it does. I got the guy elected.”
Trump said DeSantis was “dead politically” before he endorsed him in 2017 Florida governor.
“I got the guy elected. He came to see me, let’s say weeping because he was dead. He was getting out of the race. He was looking for jobs already. Probably at law firms or wherever he is going to look. He was totally dead. He ran a horrible campaign…it was like a wipeout. The election was going to be very soon. I said you are dead. If George Washington endorsed you are not going to win,” Trump told Baier.
Trump said he decided to “give it a shot” and endorsed DeSantis on Twitter. At the time, Trump called DeSantis a “brilliant young leader” who “loves our country and is a true leader.”
“It was like a bomb went off,” Trump recalled. “As soon as I endorsed him, he won the primary. It was over. He won by a landslide.”
Trump went on to headline three rallies for DeSantis during the gubernatorial race, he said, adding that he considered it a blatant betrayal when he later heard DeSantis was considering joining the race for the 2024 GOP nomination, of which Trump is the current frontrunner.
