A 12 months in the past, it appeared not possible that Donald Trump would take into account tapping Ron DeSantis for a job in a possible second administration. For the reason that Florida governor challenged Trump for the White Home, the 2 Republicans have publicly fought over insurance policies, traded private insults and undermined each other.
However they might need to name an extended truce if Trump nominates his former rival to be secretary of Protection if his present choose, Pete Hegseth, withdraws. Whereas no resolution has been made but, the potential is there — Trump and DeSantis already publicly made up over the summer time.
Right here’s a have a look at their yearslong feud, from the name-calling to marketing campaign assaults that hit residence.
Trump taunts DeSantis
The president-elect has gone after DeSantis with surface-level insults on a number of events, from nicknaming him “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “unhappy little man” to suggesting that he ate pudding with his fingers and wears boot lifts — each of which the governor denied.
When DeSantis introduced his presidential run in Might 2023 with a glitchy Twitter Areas session with Elon Musk, Trump stated his new rival “desperately wants a character transplant” on social media.
Later that month, Trump wrote in a Reality Social publish that the Florida governor “is demanding that folks name him DeeeSantis, quite than DaSantis. Truly, I like “Da” higher, a nicer stream, so I’m glad he’s altering it. He will get very upset when folks, together with reporters, don’t pronounce it appropriately. Due to this fact, he shouldn’t thoughts, DeSanctimonious?”
Throughout a radio interview whereas campaigning in New Hampshire the subsequent day, DeSantis called Trump’s habit of name-calling “juvenile” and stated it was “one of many causes he’s not within the White Home now.”
Trump slams DeSantis for disloyalty
Trump’s anger on the Florida governor went deeper than petty name-calling: It was additionally about loyalty, one thing that the president-elect seems to be for in his Cupboard nominees and allies.
Shortly after DeSantis received reelection as Florida governor in 2022, Trump publicly accused him of enjoying video games by not saying his 2024 presidential ambitions simply days earlier than Trump deliberate to announce his personal White Home bid. He criticized the Florida chief as “common” in a publish on Reality Social and took credit score for DeSantis’ gubernatorial win.
“He says, ‘I’m solely targeted on the Governor’s race, I’m not wanting into the long run.’ Properly, by way of loyalty and sophistication, that’s actually not the best reply,” Trump wrote.
Six months later, Trump lamented it once more — calling DeSantis “very disloyal” for operating in opposition to him in an interview with The Messenger in Might 2023.
He stated DeSantis “was a useless man strolling” earlier than he endorsed him for governor in 2018: “He was useless, useless as a doornail. And I revived him,” including, “If that occurred to me, I’d by no means run in opposition to the man that did that.”
A floundering marketing campaign
Trump drew stark contrasts between himself and DeSantis on the marketing campaign path, together with when he took questions from the media for 20 minutes shortly after DeSantis made headlines for shedding his mood at a reporter.
In April 2023, a handful of Republican Florida legislators endorsed Trump for president over their residence state’s governor — whereas DeSantis was visiting D.C. in an try and reveal power with the Washington institution.
Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of workers and senior adviser, wielded her data of her boss’ GOP foe from her time on the helm of DeSantis’ 2018 governor marketing campaign — and the reminiscence of Trump firing her in 2019 at DeSantis’ urging — in opposition to the Florida chief in the course of the primaries. When DeSantis pulled out of the race in January and endorsed Trump, Wiles wrote a since-deleted social media publish that learn: “Bye, bye.”
DeSantis hit again on Covid-19
Trump attacked DeSantis’ dealing with of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2023, accusing the governor of “attempting to rewrite historical past” and saying he “promoted the vaccine as a lot as anybody.”
He later quipped that “even [New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo” did higher than DeSantis at dealing with the pandemic in a marketing campaign video.
The comment appeared to hit a nerve. DeSantis responded on “Good Morning New Hampshire with Jack Heath” the next week that “folks fled Cuomo’s lockdowns to come back to Florida by the tens of hundreds.”
DeSantis’ marketing campaign went on to launch a video mashup attacking Trump for saying he doesn’t remorse lockdowns whereas DeSantis opposed them.
… And abortion
DeSantis has additionally gone after Trump’s stance on abortion. Throughout a CNN city corridor in January, when requested if Trump is pro-life, DeSantis responded, “In fact not.”
The president-elect is inconsistent on his stance on abortion, usually taking credit for overturning Roe v. Wade whereas additionally vowing to veto any federal abortion ban. DeSantis, then again, signed a six-week abortion ban into legislation in Florida — which Trump referred to as “too brief.”
In April, the Florida Supreme Court docket upheld a special 15-week ban signed by DeSantis and dominated that Floridians may vote to reverse the ban to make abortion broadly authorized within the state by means of a constitutional modification. The measure didn’t cross, giving DeSantis a win each by way of coverage and in forcing Trump to talk on the problem as a Florida resident himself.
DeSantis flaunts relative youth
Along with his insurance policies, DeSantis has taken pictures at Trump as an individual. In a 2023 interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” he knocked Trump as being too previous to be president whereas arguing that he, at 45, is within the “prime of my life.”
“I simply suppose that that’s one thing that has been proven with Joe Biden. Father Time is undefeated. Donald Trump will not be exempt from any of that,” DeSantis stated.
Age was a big issue within the 2024 presidential election, with Trump’s marketing campaign group usually taking pictures at Biden’s age and psychological acuity. The Florida governor’s marketing campaign took benefit of it too, creating an “accident tracker” to report “how lengthy the previous president can go with no office accident on the marketing campaign path.”
