Trump Welcomes Tim Scott to 2024 GOP Primary: ‘A Big Step Up From Ron DeSanctimonious’
AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File
Former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump welcomed South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott to the presidential race on Monday ahead of the senator’s official announcement.
While Trump has been viciously attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for months now, ahead of DeSantis’s own widely expected entry into the race, the former president pulled his punches in commenting on Scott – saving his jabs and mocking nicknames for DeSantis.
“Good luck to Senator Tim Scott in entering the Republican Presidential Primary Race. It is rapidly loading up with lots of people, and Tim is a big step up from Ron DeSanctimonious, who is totally unelectable. I got Opportunity Zones done with Tim, a big deal that has been highly successful. Good luck Tim!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Monday morning.
Trump won the 2016 GOP primary in a crowded field, which many observers and pundits concluded helped him to overcome what many at the time believed were longshot odds at securing the nomination.
“The more the merrier is probably Donald Trump’s anthem,” Trump’s former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told Fox News over the weekend.
“He is the front-runner, beating his closest competitor Ron DeSantis, competition benefits him because he loves competition,” Conway told Steve Hilton on Sunday.
ABC News, in February, quoted a “longtime Trump aide who is close to his 2024 team” explaining the dynamic in more concrete terms. “It’s hard to see Trump losing with even four semi-serious candidates in the race. Even three, I would bet Trump,” the aide told ABC News while discussing Nikki Haley joining the race.
“You start getting beyond three to four candidates running, it’s basically impossible for him to lose,” the aide added, noting Trump has locked down a significant share of the GOP primary vote.
So far in the early contest, Trump has saved almost all of his venom for DeSantis and has only sparingly attacked Haley – resharing old clips of the former South Carolina governor saying she would not run against him.
Scott, a devout Evangelical Christian, has been touring the country on his “Faith in America Tour” offering a positive vision for America’s future, which heavily contrasts with the Trump campaign’s messaging, which focuses on portraying the U.S. as a country in decline under President Joe Biden. Scott is expected to focus much of his messaging around his faith and be a strong competitor for the Evangelical vote, particularly in early states like Iowa and his home state of South Carolina.
