‘I Hate to Say It, But Trump’s Still Got It’: John Oliver Reacts to ‘Meatball Ron’ Nickname for DeSantis

John Oliver addressed reports that former President Donald Trump has privately referred to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as “Meatball Ron.”

Tensions between Trump and DeSantis have ratcheted up as the latter may challenge the former for the 2024 presidential nomination. Trump has taken credit for DeSantis’s 2018 election victory and views a potential challenge from the governor as an act of disloyalty.

Publicly, Trump has referred to DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” which hasn’t exactly caught on.

On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight on HBO, Oliver addressed Trump’s nickname game with respect to the governor.

“While Trump initially struggled to coin a damaging nickname for DeSantis, with his first attempt being the embarrassingly weak Ron DeSanctimonious, he later unveiled something with a lot more punch,” he said.

Oliver then aired an MSNBC clip citing a New York Times article that reported Trump had privately taken to calling DeSantis “Meatball Ron,” in what is either a shot at the governor’s Italian heritage, his appearance, or both.

“Yeah, apparently he was calling him Meatball Ron,” Oliver said. “And I hate to say it, but Trump’s still got it. It’s perfectly stupid, childish, and hurtful in a way that’s genuinely difficult to articulate. Also, it’s a pretty good name on its own.”

Trump has denied calling DeSantis “Meatball Ron.”

“I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social last month. “Even though FoxNews [sic] killing lightweight Paul Ryan is revered by him, Low Energy Jeb Bush is his hero and always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak, it would be totally inappropriate to use the word ‘meatball’ as a moniker for Ron!”

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