Former President Trump had praise for former GOP primary rival and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday, hours after the governor dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump.
“I’d like to take time to congratulate Ron DeSantis, a really terrific person … for having run a great campaign for president,” Trump said at a New Hampshire rally Sunday. “He ran a really good campaign.”
“I will tell you, it’s not easy,” he continued. “They think it’s easy doing this stuff, right? It’s not easy.”
“I appreciate that,” he said of the endorsement. “And I also look forward to working with Ron and everybody else to defeat crooked Joe Biden. We will have to get him out.”
DeSantis dropped out of the race earlier Sunday, just before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. The Florida governor had recently heightened his criticisms of the former president, but still endorsed him over former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
“Following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on our way forward,” DeSantis said in a video message posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, a few hours ahead of an event he had scheduled in New Hampshire. “If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it. But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.”
“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” the governor continued. “While I have had disagreements with Donald Trump such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden. That is clear.”
The campaign suspension ends a highly anticipated run that was once thought to seriously challenge Trump. DeSantis never gathered significant momentum and only garnered a distant second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses last week.
Trump holds a significant lead over Haley, the only other candidate remaining, in national and state polls. Haley’s campaign has focused its efforts on New Hampshire, with hopes that a strong finish could boost her over Trump in remaining primaries.
In New Hampshire, Haley trails Trump by about 11 points, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s average of state polls. Nationally, she is behind by a massive 55 points. Both averages use polls that included DeSantis.