Trump Claims DeSantis ‘Sided With the Communists’ Before Hitting His Rival For Voting to Cut Social Security

Former President Donald Trump accused his 2024 Republican primary rival Ron DeSantis of having “sided with the communists in China” on Friday, before attacking DeSantis for wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare.

During a campaign rally in South Dakota with Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump boasted about giving $28 billion from Chinese tariffs to American farmers and said:

You know a guy who was very disloyal ’cause I got him elected, so I call him Ron DeSanctimonious. He strongly opposed my protection for our farmers. I protected our farmers very simply, and by the way those farmers got big checks. Any farmers in here got big checks? Yes? Yes. Oh, he’s happy. But that goes to the people, that goes to the workers, it goes to everybody.

Trump continued, “Very simply, DeSanctus sided with the communists in China and he fought very hard that this not take place. He also opposed Medicare and he opposed a thing called Social Security.”

The former president went on to claim that a politician’s “first idea is always what they go back to,” before adding:

So now I’m sure he’s changed, I don’t know, I don’t watch him, he’s gotten so low in the polls I’m not really watching him. They say, “Sir, forget about him, he’s gone.” I say, “No, nobody’s gone, nobody’s gone until it’s over,” right? It ain’t over ’til it’s over. Yogi, the great Yogi Bear, a great philosopher. But DeSanctimonious voted to cut Social Security. Think of it. Social Security, three times, voted. Hands up, voted. He is a disciple of Paul Ryan.

As the crowd booed Paul Ryan’s name, Trump said of DeSantis, “And he wanted to raise, and he will raise if he ever got in here, which I don’t think is gonna happen, not even in four years, but he wanted to raise the minimum age to 70. That’s a big deal. He also wanted to hit Medicare and hit it very, very hard.”

In July, the Washington Post debunked Trump’s claim that DeSantis opposed tariffs on China, and gave the former president “Four Pinnochios.”

“Trump is inventing a dispute here with DeSantis,” the Post reported. “In 2018, his Republican rival did not oppose Trump’s tariffs on China or aid to farmers — and did not take any steps to block either program.”

Watch above via Newsmax.