Trump bashes DeSantis, claims he needs a ‘personality transplant’

Former President Trump bashed Gov. Ron DeSantis in a new ad Friday, claiming the Florida Republican needs a “personality transplant.”

“The problem with Rondesanctimonious is that he needs a personality transplant, and those are not yet available. Almost all congressmen and women that served with him and knew him well supported me, some of them surprisingly so because of their relationship with Ron,” he said in the 40-second ad, using his preferred nickname for DeSantis. 

“I would say that when it comes to lack of personality, Ron would be in a class with [former Arkansas Gov.] Asa Hutchinson, and that’s not good,” he continued. 

The former president also called DeSantis’s recent foreign travels “a total bomb,” claiming that people didn’t understand why he had taken the overseas trips.

The former president has regularly targeted the Florida governor as surveys show DeSantis, who has not yet entered the race, generally polling second behind Trump for the 2024 GOP White House nomination. 

The ad alludes to the fact that a number of Florida House Republicans have backed Trump while DeSantis has only received one endorsement from a House Republican in his home state, Rep. Laurel Lee, who previously served as Florida secretary of state in the DeSantis administration.

The Hill has reached out to DeSantis’s political team and the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down for comment.