Former President Trump accused Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of being a “RINO GLOBALIST” on Wednesday, continuing his attacks on the potential 2024 contender widely viewed as his biggest competition for the Republican nomination.
“The real Ron is a RINO GLOBALIST, who closed quickly down Florida and even its beaches,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Loved the Vaccines and wasted big money on ‘Testing.’ How quickly people forget!”
RINO, one of Trump’s favorite jabs for his fellow Republicans, stands for “Republican in Name Only.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked DeSantis as he continues to ramp up his own 2024 campaign, which he launched just one week after the midterm elections in November.
In his latest series of jabs at the Florida governor, Trump accused DeSantis on Saturday of “trying to rewrite history” on his COVID-19 response and claimed it would be “a great act of disloyalty” for DeSantis to launch his own presidential bid.
“If he runs, that’s fine. I’m way up in the polls. He’s going to have to do what he wants to do, but he may run,” Trump said following a campaign swing through New Hampshire and South Carolina over the weekend. “I do think it would be a great act of disloyalty because, you know, I got him in. He had no chance. His political life was over.”
The former president, who endorsed DeSantis in 2018, has often taken credit for DeSantis’s first successful bid for governor.
DeSantis has largely refused to engage Trump amid the attacks.
“I roll out of bed. I have people attacking me from all angles,” the Florida governor said at a press conference on Tuesday. “It’s been happening for many, many years.”
However, DeSantis did hit back on the accusations about his COVID-19 record.
“When you’re an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions. You got to steer that ship,” DeSantis said. “And the good thing is, is that the people are able to render a judgment on that — whether they reelect you or not.”
“And I’m happy to say, you know, in my case, not only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida,” he added.