DeSantis Mega-Donor Vows His Candidate Will Soon Go ‘Right After’ Trump And His Record as President

Fox host Neil Cavuto interviewed Hal Lambert on Monday, a Ron DeSantis mega-donor, about the Florida governor’s struggling 2024 presidential campaign and what changes the campaign is making to gain ground on former President Donald Trump in the GOP primary.

Cavuto asked Lambert for his “gut read” on a variety of issues and pressed the finance industry titan on whether or not DeSantis needs to outright attack Trump.

“The debate is coming up next month on Fox. The former president has made it clear, at least thus far, he could be, you know, punking us here, that he’s not going to participate. Doesn’t have to. He leads by a country mile. Why should he? Does it matter, too, to your candidate, the Florida governor? If Donald Trump doesn’t appear, then you could make an argument that he becomes the target,” Cavuto asked.

“Oh, I think absolutely he would be the target. And, you know, he’s preparing for that. If Donald Trump is not there,” Lambert replied.

Lambert added, “I think it’ll be probably not a good thing for former President Trump if he doesn’t attend. You know, he did that once last time or 2016 and he lost Iowa shortly after that. So I’m not sure, you know, we’ll see where he goes with this, but we’re prepared either way.”

“So let’s sort of play that out. The role that the governor has played has been one not to be like an attack dog, like for example, Chris Christie, increasingly, Nikki Haley, you know, he’s picked his shots. Is he playing it too gingerly here? Is it because he thinks as the fallback guy and in case Trump implodes, that he doesn’t want to tick off those Trump voters? And could that be a strategic mistake for him?” Cavuto pressed.

“Yeah, I don’t think he’s playing it incorrectly, but I would say this you’re going to see a lot more of Governor DeSantis over the next few months, a lot more of him,” Lambert replied, adding:

He’s going to appear in a lot more media, and I think he’s going to probably go right after some of the policy differences between him and President Trump and what President Trump did in his first term. So I think you’re going to see more of that. But the first six weeks or so of the campaign was really focused on getting the resources necessary to run a campaign. That’s what he’s been doing. And also, obviously going to Iowa and focusing on the early states.

Notably, many reports in recent weeks have suggested DeSantis’s donors are growing concerned by both the Florida governors shrinking poll numbers and his ability to win a general election as he runs to the right of Trump. “Ken Griffin and Nelson Peltz are rethinking support for Florida governor’s presidential bid,” reported the Financial Times over the weekend.

Cavuto ended the interview by asking about the stock market:

Real quickly, as a pretty good guy with money, what do you think of what the Dow has been doing lately? It’s looking now to make it 11 gains in a row. Haven’t seen that in the better part of six years or more. What’s going on? And does it worry you just from a political standpoint, if that’s the wind at Joe Biden’s back?

“No, it is pretty amazing what the market’s done this year. You know, I think most people, you know, didn’t expect this. I think they’re pricing in the fact that the Fed is very close to being done. But no, I’m not I’m not going to sit here and say, hey, we don’t want a higher stock market because it will help President Biden. I think his policies have been horrific and his numbers are not good,” Lambert concluded.

Watch the clip above via Fox Business.