Trump Declares DeSantis Campaign ‘DEAD,’ Says Poll Numbers Are ‘Heading To HELL’
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File
Former President Donald Trump swiped at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday, deeming his 2024 campaign moribund and stating that the governor’s poll numbers are headed for fire and brimstone.
Though the first GOP primary debate will not take place until August, DeSantis and other candidates have a lot of work to do. Polls indicate the former president remains wildly popular with the Republican base. Recent surveys show second-place DeSantis well behind Trump, often by 30 points or more.
Trump has regularly posted poll results to this effect on his Truth Social platform. On Thursday, he kicked matters up a notch by noting the governor’s low numbers while also casting him as the candidate that the alleged deep state wants to run against.
“The DeSanctimonious campaign is DEAD!” Trump wrote. “His polls are dropping like a rock heading to Hell, and the DOJ/FBI are continuing their illegal and outrageous weaponization against me only because I am leading Biden by so much. It’s called ELECTION INTERFERENCE, and they have NO FEAR against DeSanctus – He’s the one that they are dying to run against, dispute their DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN!”
DeSantis received Trump’s endorsement in 2018, but not in 2022 after the governor refused to rule out a 2024 presidential run. Trump regards his candidacy as an act of disloyalty.
Trump maintains he did nothing wrong by retaining government documents after he left the White House. This month, he was indicted by the Department of Justice, which in a 37-count indictment alleges Trump took classified material, showed it to others who were not cleared to see it, and obstructed the government’s attempts to retrieve it. The FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in August, where agents found a trove of boxes containing government material.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Rather than hinder his efforts to win the nomination, the indictment has not seemed to affect Trump’s poll numbers among Republican voters.
