‘Fake News’: Team DeSantis Denies Rumor Spread by Trump About Florida Governor

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

The press secretary for Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis denied a rumor spread by former President Donald Trump on Monday about DeSantis intending to drop out of the presidential race to run for Senate.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump — who had some harsh words for DeSantis following the first Republican presidential debate last week — wrote:

Rumors are strong in political circles that Ron DeSanctimonious, whose Presidential run is a shambles, and whose poll numbers have absolutely crashed, putting him 3rd and 4th in some states, will be dropping out of the Presidential race in order to run, in Florida, against Rick Scott for Senate. Now that’s an interesting one, isn’t it?

After the suggestion went viral on social media, with Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro questioning whether the rumor was true, DeSantis’ press secretary Bryan Griffin issued a statement on Twitter dismissing Trump’s remarks.

“This is fake news,” wrote Griffin. “Clearly, Donald Trump and his army of consultants are panicked about @RonDeSantis’ winning debate performance and the strong momentum that has followed. They know this is a two-man race, and we will carry this on to a win in this presidential primary.”

DeSantis’ press secretary advised, “Instead of pushing fake news from New Jersey, the Trump campaign should be focused on getting their candidate on the campaign trail in Iowa and on the debate stage before it’s too late.”

DeSantis remains the second most popular candidate in the 2024 Republican primary, despite having slipped in the polls, according to RealClearPolitics’ polling average. Trump, the frontrunner, currently sits at 53%, with DeSantis second at 13%. Vivek Ramaswamy, however, has approached DeSantis’ position in recent weeks, even tying with and beating the Florida governor in several individual polls.

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